Version 3.0 · Effective April 12, 2026
Trial Friend is a rare disease information hub for patients and caregivers, offering disease guides, drug information, treatment timelines, comparison charts, clinical trial search, and an AI chat assistant. We take your privacy seriously, especially given the sensitive nature of health-related searches. This policy describes what data we collect, how we use it, how long we keep it, and what rights you have over it.
If you sign up for trial alerts, we collect your email address and the condition you are interested in. We use this only to send you notifications about new matching trials and, if you opt in, educational content and disease updates. We never sell, share, or rent your email address to third parties, including pharmaceutical companies. An email address tied to a rare disease condition is sensitive data, and we treat it with the same care we would treat health information, even though it is not technically protected health information (PHI) under HIPAA.
Every time you sign up, change a preference, unsubscribe, or request deletion, we log that event in an audit trail. This record includes a hashed version of your email, the action taken, and a timestamp. We keep these records for up to 7 years for legal compliance. This protects both you and us by documenting that we have your permission to send you email and that we honored any request to stop.
When you use the AI chat assistant, your messages are sent to our server and processed using Anthropic's Claude API to generate responses. Chat conversations are stored in our database (Supabase) using a random session ID with no link to your email address or any personal information. We routinely scrub chat messages for common PII patterns such as email addresses, phone numbers, and Social Security numbers. We recommend not sharing personally identifying details in the chat. Chat logs are automatically deleted after 90 days.
Trial Friend uses two analytics systems. Google Analytics 4 (GA4) helps us understand general traffic patterns and sets cookies on your device (such as _ga) to distinguish unique visitors. Google may process this data on servers in the United States. We do not enable Google advertising features, remarketing, or user-ID tracking. For visitors in the European Economic Area and UK, GA4 is only loaded after you accept cookies through our consent banner. We also use a custom first-party analytics system (powered by Supabase) to track page views and feature usage on our own infrastructure. Neither analytics system is linked to your email address or any personal information you provide to Trial Friend.
To power weekly change digests, we store snapshots of publicly available trial data from ClinicalTrials.gov, including trial titles, statuses, site locations, enrollment targets, and eligibility criteria. This is public clinical trial data, not personal information. It is used solely to detect changes and notify subscribers who are tracking those conditions.
When you search for a condition on Trial Friend, your search text is used to filter our local disease list in your browser and is not sent to any external service. However, when you visit a disease page, your browser fetches live clinical trial data from ClinicalTrials.gov (a U.S. government service) using the condition name from our database, not your search input. When you use Match Me, the condition you select is sent to ClinicalTrials.gov to fetch its open trials. Your age, sex and treatment answers stay in your browser, where the matching happens. ClinicalTrials.gov's privacy policy applies to what it receives.
When you use the “Translate to plain English” feature, the eligibility criteria text is sent to our server and processed using an AI language model. We do not store the criteria text or the AI response.
Some drug pages include an interactive treatment timeline that asks you when you started a medication, which formulation you take, whether you have had follow-up labs, and which side effects you are experiencing. This information is used solely to personalize the timeline shown on that page. It is stored in your browser's localStorage so your progress is saved if you return to the same drug page. This data is never sent to our servers, never stored in any database, and never included in analytics. You can clear your Treatment Arc data at any time using the reset option on the timeline or by clearing your browser's localStorage.
Trial Friend may occasionally offer voluntary surveys, such as patient experience questionnaires, quality-of-life assessments, or feedback forms. Participation is always optional. Survey responses are stored anonymously unless you choose to provide your email for follow-up. Aggregate, de-identified survey results may be shared with patient advocacy organizations or research partners to help improve rare disease care, but individual responses are never sold or shared in identifiable form. You will always be told at the start of a survey how your responses will be used.
We do not collect your name, diagnosis, medical history, medications, or any other protected health information (PHI) as defined by HIPAA. We do not use cookies for advertising or remarketing. We do not build behavioral profiles, sell personal data to third parties, or monetize your browsing activity, and we never will. Unlike platforms such as Facebook or TikTok, Trial Friend does not track you across websites, build advertising profiles based on your health searches, or sell your data to brokers. If we display an ad, the advertiser knows nothing about you. They see aggregate numbers (how many people viewed the ad), not who you are or what you searched for. While we do collect email addresses tied to rare disease conditions (which is sensitive even if not technically PHI), we do not collect or store any clinical or medical details about you beyond the condition name you select when signing up. Treatment timeline responses are saved in your browser's localStorage and are never transmitted to us.
Google Analytics 4 sets cookies such as _ga (expires after 2 years) and _gid (expires after 24 hours) to distinguish unique visitors. No advertising or remarketing cookies are used. Our custom Supabase analytics system does not set any cookies. We use localStorage to remember your cookie consent choice so we do not ask again. We use sessionStorage (cleared when you close the tab) for temporary visit preferences. Treatment timeline data is stored in your browser's localStorage so your progress persists between visits; it is never sent to our servers. For visitors in the European Economic Area and UK, analytics cookies are only set after you accept our cookie consent banner. You can decline cookies or clear them from your browser at any time.
Email addresses: Retained until you unsubscribe or request deletion.
Chat logs: Automatically deleted after 90 days.
Consent records: Retained for up to 7 years for legal compliance. After deletion of your account, we retain only a hashed (non-reversible) version of your email alongside the consent record.
Anonymized usage data: Retained indefinitely in aggregate form with no connection to individual users.
Trial Friend may send you the following types of email, depending on your preferences:
Trial Alerts (on by default): Notifications when new clinical trials open for your condition, and weekly digests when existing trials change status, add new sites, update enrollment targets, or revise eligibility criteria. We check ClinicalTrials.gov daily for new trials and weekly for changes to existing ones.
Disease Updates & Education (on by default): Occasional updates about your condition, such as new treatments, FDA approvals, and plain-language research explainers. Expect 1–2 emails per month at most.
Anonymous Product Improvement (on by default): Allows us to learn from how visitors use the site. This data is never tied to your email or identity.
Foundation Events & Advocacy (opt-in, off by default): Notifications about rare disease events, conferences, and advocacy opportunities related to your condition. These messages may be written on behalf of patient advocacy organizations or foundations, but Trial Friend sends them directly from our own email infrastructure. We never share your email address with the organization. They provide the content; we deliver it. The foundation never sees your email or any identifying information about you.
Partner Communications (opt-in, off by default): Occasional messages from trusted organizations working in your condition area, delivered by Trial Friend on their behalf. As with foundation events, your email is never shared with the partner. All messages are sent through our system, and partners receive only aggregate statistics (like how many emails were delivered). You can turn this off at any time.
Additional categories (patient research surveys, product updates, and patient advisory opportunities) may be added in the future. These will always be opt-in and off by default.
You can manage all email preferences at any time from your preferences page (a personalized link is included in every email we send) or by emailing jason@trialfriend.com.
You have the following rights regarding your data:
Access: Request a copy of the data we hold about you.
Correction: Update your email address or preferences.
Deletion: Request removal of all your data. We will permanently delete your email, condition, and subscription history within 30 days. We retain only a hashed record of the deletion request for legal compliance.
Restriction: Pause processing of your data without full deletion.
Portability: Export your data in a standard format.
Objection: Opt out of any processing category at any time.
To exercise any of these rights, visit your preferences page or email jason@trialfriend.com. Unsubscribing stops all emails but keeps your record so we know not to contact you. Requesting deletion removes everything.
We do not sell or share your personal information as defined by the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) and the California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA). You can contact us at jason@trialfriend.com to exercise your California privacy rights, or visit our Do Not Sell or Share page.
Trial Friend is operated in the United States. If you access Trial Friend from outside the U.S., your information may be transferred to and processed in the U.S. By using Trial Friend, you consent to this transfer. We build our consent and deletion infrastructure to meet the standards expected by international privacy regulations, even where we are not formally required to comply with them.
Trial Friend may display clearly labeled advertisements, sponsored content, or downloadable resources from pharmaceutical companies, patient advocacy foundations, research organizations, or other partners. All paid placements are visually distinct from editorial content and marked as “Sponsored” or “Advertisement.” Sponsors and advertisers have no influence over the drug information, treatment timelines, comparison charts, side effect data, or any other editorial content on Trial Friend. All medical content is independently sourced from FDA prescribing information, published clinical trials, and established medical references regardless of any advertising relationship. We do not share your email address, browsing history, or personal information with advertisers or sponsors. Advertisers may receive only aggregate, anonymized statistics such as total ad impressions or clicks. Trial Friend may also partner with patient advocacy foundations, research organizations, and rare disease nonprofits for educational initiatives, survey distribution, or awareness campaigns. These partnerships follow the same principle: your personal data is never shared with partners.
Google Analytics: We use Google Analytics 4 to understand site usage. Google may process analytics data on its servers. We do not enable advertising features, remarketing, or User-ID tracking. Google's privacy policy applies to data they process: policies.google.com/privacy.
ClinicalTrials.gov: Trial data is fetched directly from the ClinicalTrials.gov API, operated by the U.S. National Library of Medicine. Their privacy policy applies to data accessed through their service.
AI processing: Chat conversations and eligibility criteria translations are powered by Anthropic's Claude API. Chat messages are sent to our server for processing and stored anonymously in Supabase. The text sent to Anthropic does not include any personal information about you.
Email delivery: Emails are sent through Resend, a transactional email service. Resend processes your email address solely for the purpose of delivering our emails.
Database: Subscriber data, chat logs, and first-party analytics are stored in Supabase, which runs on AWS infrastructure with encryption at rest and in transit.
Geocoding: When you enter a US ZIP code in Match Me, Trials Near Me, a disease page's trial map or the homepage trial search, your browser sends it to Zippopotam.us, a free lookup service, to get map coordinates for measuring distance to trial sites. Trial Friend never receives the full ZIP code. When one is typed into the homepage trial search, our analytics keep only its first 3 digits, and location is never sent to Google Analytics.
Hosting: Trial Friend is hosted on Vercel. Vercel may collect standard server logs (IP addresses, request timestamps) as part of normal web hosting. We do not use Vercel analytics or tracking features.
Trial Friend is not a covered entity under HIPAA. We do not collect, store, or transmit protected health information as defined by HIPAA. We are a search tool that helps you find publicly available clinical trial information. That said, we recognize that an email address linked to a rare disease condition is sensitive data, and we treat it with heightened care: encryption at rest, limited access, consent-based collection, and prompt deletion on request.
In the unlikely event of a data breach affecting your personal information, we will notify you by email within 72 hours of becoming aware of the breach, consistent with applicable law. We will also notify relevant authorities as required.
This policy may be updated. We will notify subscribers by email of material changes before they take effect. The version number and effective date are listed at the top of this page. Previous versions are archived and available on request.
Questions about this policy? Email us at jason@trialfriend.com.