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Garrison-Morton-Norman History of Medicine

Privacy

Privacy Policy & Cookie Notice

Effective Date: October 22, 2026

The Institute for the International History of Medicine ("IIHM," "we," "us," or "our") is committed to protecting your privacy. This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, disclose, and safeguard your information when you visit our websites (iihm.org and historyofmedicine.com) and interact with our platform.

1. Information We Collect

We collect information that identifies, relates to, or could reasonably be linked to you ("Personal Information") in the following contexts:

  • Fellowship Applications: When you apply for a fellowship, we collect your name, email address, institutional affiliation, curriculum vitae, and uploaded application materials (PDFs).
  • Donations: When you make a financial contribution, we collect your contact information. Payment processing is handled securely by Stripe; we do not store or process full credit card numbers on our servers.
  • Communications: When you subscribe to our newsletter or submit inquiries, we collect your email address. Subscriptions require double opt-in confirmation.
  • Automatically Collected Data: We collect basic server logs and technical data (e.g., IP address, browser type) necessary to ensure the security and functionality of the website.
  • Analytics (only if you accept): If you choose Accept analytics on the cookie bar, Google Analytics 4 records page views on public pages. We do not send your name or email address to Analytics. We do not send address-bar query strings or signed-in workspace URLs. Advertising features and Google Signals are off.

2. Legal Basis and How We Use Your Information

We use your Personal Information only for the purposes described below. Where the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) applies, we process your Personal Information under the following legal bases:

  • Consent: To send newsletter updates and communications (which you may withdraw at any time).
  • Contractual Necessity: To evaluate and administer fellowship applications.
  • Legitimate Interest: To operate and secure our website, prevent fraud, and process charitable donations.
  • Legal Obligation: To retain donation records for tax acknowledgment and financial reporting.

3. Sharing and Third-Party Service Providers

We do not sell your Personal Information, nor do we share it with third parties for cross-context behavioral advertising. We share data only with trusted service providers acting on our behalf:

  • Stripe: For secure payment processing of donations.
  • Resend: For delivering transactional and newsletter emails.
  • Cloudflare (R2): For the secure cloud storage of fellowship application uploads.
  • Google: For embedded calendar displays (see Cookie Notice below).

Each provider processes data under its own privacy terms and data processing agreements.

4. Data Retention

We retain Personal Information only for as long as necessary to fulfill the purposes outlined in this policy. Fellowship application materials are retained for the duration of the review cycle and a reasonable archival period. Donation records are kept as required by applicable tax and accounting laws. Newsletter subscriber data is retained until you unsubscribe or request deletion.

5. International Data Transfers

IIHM is located in the United States. If you are accessing our site from the European Economic Area (EEA), the UK, or other regions with laws governing data collection, please note that your Personal Information will be transferred to and processed in the United States. Where European data protection law applies to a transfer, we rely on appropriate safeguards or on recognized derogations, such as your explicit consent or the necessity of the transfer to administer your fellowship application or donation.

6. Your Privacy Rights

Depending on your residency (such as California under the CCPA/CPRA or Europe under the GDPR), you may have the right to:

  • Access: Request a copy of the Personal Information we hold about you.
  • Correction: Request that we correct inaccurate or incomplete data.
  • Deletion (Right to be Forgotten): Request that we erase your Personal Information, subject to certain legal exceptions (e.g., tax records).
  • Restriction/Objection: Object to our processing of your data or request we restrict its use.
  • Data Portability: Request a copy of the Personal Information you provided to us in a structured, commonly used, machine-readable format.
  • Non-Discrimination: You will not be penalized or discriminated against for exercising your privacy rights.

To exercise these rights, please contact us at [email protected]. We will verify your request and respond within the legally required timeframe.

7. Children’s Privacy

Our website is not directed to children under the age of 13, and we do not knowingly collect Personal Information from children under 13. If you believe that a child has provided us with Personal Information, please contact us at [email protected] and we will delete it.

8. Cookie Notice

The website uses cookies and similar technologies in two limited ways: cookies that are strictly necessary for the website to function and remain secure, and cookies or similar technologies set by Google when you visit a page containing an embedded Google calendar. A consent bar appears at the bottom of the page before any analytics cookies are set. The site remains usable if you choose Essential only. If you choose Accept analytics, we load Google Analytics 4 and Google may set analytics cookies to count page views. If you choose Essential only, we do not load Analytics and we do not set those cookies. You can change this later via Cookie settings in the footer. When you visit a page containing the embedded Google calendar, Google may collect information about your online activities over time and across different websites. You can remove or block cookies through your browser settings, although blocking cookies may prevent embedded content from displaying. The website does not respond to browser “Do Not Track” signals.

9. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. If we make material changes, we will post the revised policy on this page and update the Effective Date above.