Privacy Policy

We collect as little as we can. This page explains exactly what that is, who else is involved, and what you can do about it.

What we collect

The Care Online has no user accounts and no comments. We hold personal information in only two cases:

  • If you email us. We receive your email address and whatever you write. We keep it only as long as it takes to reply and to keep a record of any correction you’ve asked for.
  • If you join the newsletter. We store the email address you enter, when you signed up, and whether you confirmed it. After you confirm, we add the address to our Google Group, which is how the newsletter is sent, and Google emails you an invitation to accept. Every newsletter has an unsubscribe link, and you can ask us to delete your address at any time.

Analytics

We use Google Analytics to understand which pages are read and how people find them. It sets cookies (such as _ga) and collects information like the pages you view, your approximate location, your device and browser, and how you arrived. We see only aggregated reports, not who you are. You can read how Google uses data from sites that use its services, or opt out with the Google Analytics opt-out browser add-on.

Advertising

We use, or may soon use, Google AdSense to show ads. These ads help pay for the site.

  • Third-party vendors, including Google, use cookies to serve ads based on your previous visits to this website or other websites.
  • Google’s use of advertising cookies enables it and its partners to serve ads to you based on your visits to this site and/or other sites on the internet.
  • You can opt out of personalised advertising in Google Ads Settings. You can also opt out of some third-party vendors’ use of cookies for personalised advertising at www.aboutads.info.
  • Where the law requires it, for example for visitors in the European Economic Area, the UK and Switzerland, you will be asked for consent before personalised ads are shown. You can change your choice at any time.

We don’t choose the individual ads you see. An ad on this site is not a recommendation from us, and nothing in an ad is medical advice.

Videos

Most posts have a companion video hosted on YouTube. In an article, the YouTube player loads only when you press play. On our video pages (addresses starting /video/) the player loads with the page. Both use YouTube’s privacy-enhanced mode (youtube-nocookie.com), but once a video plays, YouTube may set cookies or use similar storage under Google’s privacy policy.

Cookies and similar storage

  • Analytics and advertising cookies from Google, described above.
  • A functional cookie that our caching layer may set purely to serve pages faster.
  • Browser storage (localStorage) that remembers whether you’ve closed the newsletter card, so we don’t show it to you again. It never leaves your browser.

You can block or delete cookies in your browser settings. The site still works without them.

Server logs and delivery

Like every website, our server records basic request information (IP address, browser type, the page requested, time) in logs used for security and to keep the site running. These logs are rotated and deleted routinely, and they are not used to build profiles. The site is delivered through Cloudflare, a content delivery network, which processes request data for speed and protection under its own privacy terms. Our email runs on Google Workspace.

Children

Some posts cover children’s health, but they are written for parents and carers. The site is not directed at children under 13, and we don’t knowingly collect information from them.

Your rights

You can ask what we hold about you (usually nothing, or just an email address), ask us to correct or delete it, or withdraw your consent to the newsletter. Depending on where you live, you may have further rights, for example under the GDPR or California law. Write to [email protected] and we’ll reply within 30 days. We don’t sell personal data.

Changes

If this policy changes, we’ll update this page and the date below.

Last updated: 24 September 2026.