Privacy Policy

We collect the following categories of information.

• Name, email address, password
• Institution, specialty, professional details
• Account profile information
• Manuscripts, reviews, ratings, and comments
• Communications with us (support, surveys)

Through cookies, pixels, tags, SDKs, device identifiers (with user consent where required):

• IP address, browser type, device type, OS
• Page views, clicks, scroll depth, session duration
• Unique advertising IDs, cookie IDs
• Ad impression logs
• Identity resolution data (hashed email or device match)

We may receive pseudonymized or anonymized identifiers and analytics data from:

• Advertising networks (e.g., Google Ad Manager/AdX, Ziff Davis, DSPs/SSPs)
• Meta, LinkedIn, TikTok, and similar platforms
• Analytics providers
• Identity-resolution vendors

To author, review, rate or comment on articles, you must create an account and provide name, email, specialty, institution, and geographic information. We use this information to verify identity and professional affiliation.

We use personal information to:

• Provide and operate the publishing and platform services
• Improve site functionality and user experience
• Verify account integrity and prevent fraud
• Enable advertising personalization (with consent where required)
• Conduct analytics and measurement
• Run programmatic advertising (Google AdX, CPE campaigns)
• Deliver sponsored communications (based on consent)
• Comply with legal obligations
• Secure our Services

We and our partners use:

• Cookies (first- and third-party)
• Web beacons, pixels
• Device fingerprinting (with consent)
• Hashed email matching
• Probabilistic and deterministic identity graphs
• Your choices
• Our Cookie Consent Manager (banner)
• Via browser/device settings
• Industry opt-outs (DAA, NAI, EDAA)
• No non-essential cookies (including advertising, analytics, identity resolution) are activated without your consent, where legally %li required (EU/UK/CA).

We may use your information—subject to consent where required—to:

• Deliver contextual and interest-based ads
• Measure ad performance
• Run CPE, CPM, CPC, native, or programmatic advertising campaigns
• Participate in real-time bidding (RTB) auctions

With your separate opt-in consent, we send sponsored or partner emails. You may unsubscribe at any time.

As part of our efforts to improve our services and provide relevant communications, we may use your email address for marketing and advertising purposes. This includes incorporating your email address into targeted audience lists on third-party advertising platforms such as Meta Platforms (Facebook and Instagram), LinkedIn, TikTok, Google Ads, and other major digital advertising networks.This practice allows us to deliver advertisements, promotions, and updates that are more relevant to your professional interests and prior interactions with our services.

How We Use Your Email on Advertising Platforms

When permitted by applicable law, we may share your email address with advertising platforms for the following purposes:

• Custom Audiences: To reach existing contacts with relevant advertisements or updates
• Lookalike Audiences: To identify potential new users who share similar characteristics with our existing audience
• Retargeting Campaigns: To display follow-up content to individuals who have previously interacted with our website, emails, or content

Before being uploaded, email addresses are typically hashed or encrypted using privacy-protective measures. Advertising platforms use this information solely for matching and campaign delivery purposes and do not disclose your email address to other advertisers or use it outside the scope of our campaigns, subject to their own privacy policies.

Your Rights, Choices, and Controls

You have the right to understand and control how your personal information is used. Depending on your state of residence, you may have rights under applicable U.S. privacy laws, including the right to opt out of certain targeted advertising activities.

You may exercise your choices by:

• Opting out directly with us by contacting: [email protected]
• Managing ad preferences through the privacy or ad settings on each platform, such as (but not limited to) Facebook, LinkedIn, or TikTok

We do not sell your personal information in the traditional sense. However, certain data-sharing activities for targeted advertising may be considered “sharing” under some state privacy laws, and we honor applicable opt-out requests as required by law.

We allow third-party advertising partners to collect information about consumers’ interactions with our websites and services through cookies, pixels, SDKs, and similar technologies. These partners use this information to deliver advertisements, measure advertising performance, perform analytics, and, where permitted, provide interest-based advertising.

Our advertising partners (including but not limited to Everyday Health and Publisher Health / Longitude Leads) include companies that sell and serve advertisements directly on our platform, as well as partners that facilitate programmatic advertising through advertising technology solutions, including ad wrappers and demand-side platforms. These partners may collect identifiers such as IP address, online identifiers, device information, and browsing activity.

Under California law, the sharing of personal information for cross-context behavioral advertising may be considered a “sale” or “sharing” of personal information. We disclose personal information to advertising partners for these purposes, subject to your rights and choices described below.

Your California Privacy Rights

California residents have the right to:

• Opt out of the sale or sharing of personal information for cross-context behavioral advertising
• Limit the use and disclosure of sensitive personal information (where applicable)
• Access, correct, or delete personal information
• Not be discriminated against for exercising these rights

You may exercise your rights through the methods described in the California Privacy Rights section of this policy.

We share information with providers who assist with:

• IT hosting, security, analytics
• Advertising and identity matching
• Manuscript management and fraud detection
• Customer support

Cureus and this website is a member of the DMD Healthcare Communications Network (the “HCN”). HCN is owned and managed by DMD Marketing Corp (“DMD”) and is designed to enable DMD and HCN members to provide medically relevant business communications to authenticated health care professionals.

Your registration at this website includes registration with HCN. As a result, your contact and other professionally relevant information will be disclosed to DMD and each HCN member to provide you medically relevant content as described in the HCN privacy policy available at https://hcn.health/privacy-policy. The HCN privacy policy provides details on how to manage your information, including opting out of participation in the HCN.

To the extent that this site’s privacy policy conflicts with the HCN privacy policy, with respect to the use of this information by HCN, the conflict will be resolved in favor of the HCN policy. You may withdraw consent at any time through HCN’s privacy tools.

Cureus reserves the right to share personal information (including author names, email addresses and institutional affiliations) with Clear Skies Ltd. for the purpose of screening article submissions for paper mill activity. This data will not be shared or used for any other purpose by Clear Skies Ltd.

The Clear Skies Ltd. privacy policy provides additional details:

https://clear-skies.co.uk/privacy-policy. To the extent that this site’s privacy policy conflicts with the Clear Skies Ltd. privacy policy, with respect to the use of this information by Clear Skies Ltd., the conflict will be resolved in favor of the Clear Skies Ltd. policy.

We may share information:

• To comply with the law or respond to legal requests
• To protect rights, safety, and integrity
• In a merger, acquisition, or reorganization (with notice provided)

We do not sell your plain-text identifiable information. Under CPRA, certain pseudonymized advertising disclosures may be considered “selling” or “sharing.” See Appendix B for opt-out options.

We transfer personal data globally and use safeguards such as:

• EU/UK adequacy decisions
• Standard Contractual Clauses
• Technical measures (encryption, pseudonymization)

We may transfer Personal Information to third-party service providers and sub-processors located outside of the United States, including in countries that may have different data protection laws than those in your jurisdiction.

In limited circumstances, Personal Information may be transferred to and processed in the People’s Republic of China, including in connection with our relationship with the Charlesworth Agency. Where such transfers occur, they are made solely for purposes related to providing our services and are conducted in accordance with applicable data protection laws.

Transfers of Personal Information to China are governed by the China Standard Contract for the Cross-Border Transfer of Personal Information and are subject to contractual safeguards designed to protect Personal Information and limit its use to authorized purposes.

We retain data only as long as necessary:

• Data Category Retention Period
• Account data Until account deletion + 2 years (audit/log obligations)
• Manuscripts/reviews as required for academic record and publishing integrity
• Advertising identifiers (until consent withdrawal or 24 months (whichever is sooner))
• Security logs 12–24 months depending on threat analysis

We use administrative, organizational, and technical safeguards, including:

• Encryption in transit and at rest
• Limited-access controls
• Vendor due diligence
• Regular security assessments

Your rights differ depending on your location (see appendices). You may have the right to:

• Access your personal information
• Request deletion
• Correct inaccurate information
• Withdraw consent
• Opt out of advertising, cookies, and identity resolution
• Object to profiling
• Request data portability

Submit requests to: [email protected]

We verify all requests to protect user security.

We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13 (or under 16 in certain jurisdictions). If discovered, the data will be deleted.

External websites are not controlled by Cureus.

We encourage you to review their privacy policies.

We rely on:

• Contract — account creation and use of the platform
• Terms of Use
• Legitimate Interests — platform security, fraud prevention, non-intrusive analytics
• Consent — advertising cookies, identity resolution, custom audiences, sponsored emails
• Legal Obligation — recordkeeping, compliance

You may:

• Access your data
• Correct inaccuracies
• Delete your data
• Restrict processing
• Withdraw consent
• Object to profiling or marketing
• Request data portability
• Lodge a complaint with your supervisory authority

We obtain prior consent for:

• Advertising and marketing cookies
• Third-party analytics
• Identity resolution technologies
• Cross-site tracking

Necessary cookies may still be used.

Handled through SCCs, adequacy, and supplementary measures.

Identifiers, professional info, internet activity, geolocation (coarse IP-based), audience segments, pseudonymous identifiers, and sensitive personal information (professional specialty, institution).

Depending on your state, you may access, delete, correct, or opt out of:

• Sale or sharing
• Targeted advertising
• Profiling decisions
• Appeal denied requests

Submit requests: [email protected]

Cureus adheres to PIPEDA principles including:

• Accountability
• Identifying purposes
• Consent
• Limiting use, disclosure, retention
• Safeguards
• Openness
• Accuracy
• Individual access

Contact [email protected] for requests.

California residents may request:

• A list of categories of personal information disclosed to third parties for their direct marketing purposes during the preceding calendar year
• The names or categories of third parties receiving such information

To request this information: