What this site collects

Things you actively send

If you fill in a contact or newsletter form, we receive whatever you typed — typically a name and an email address. We use it to reply to you or to send what you asked for, and for nothing else. We do not sell it, rent it, or trade it.

Things collected automatically

• Server logs. Our host records the usual request data — IP address, browser and device type, the page requested, the referring page and a timestamp. This is standard web-server logging, used for security and troubleshooting.
• Analytics. We use analytics to understand which pages are read and how people arrive. This tells us that a page was read; it does not tell us who you are.
• Search Console. Google reports aggregate search queries that led to this site. These are aggregate counts, never individual searches tied to a person.

Cookies

Cookies are small files a site stores in your browser. This site uses them for basic function (keeping a page working as you move around it), for analytics, and for affiliate attribution — a retailer needs a cookie to know that a purchase came from a link here. You can block or clear cookies in your browser settings; the site will still work, though affiliate attribution and some conveniences will not.

Affiliate links

Some outbound product links are affiliate links, described in full in the affiliate disclosure. When you follow one, the retailer — not this site — sets its own cookies and applies its own privacy policy. What you then do on that retailer’s site is not visible to us. We see only that a link was clicked and, in aggregate, that some purchases resulted.

Third parties that receive data

Running a website means some data reaches service providers. In our case that is the web host, the analytics provider, the search-console provider, the email delivery service if you contact us, and the affiliate networks behind product links. Each has its own privacy policy. We do not sell personal information to anyone.

Children

This site is written for adults and is not directed at children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect their information. Heel pain does affect children — calcaneal apophysitis, usually called Sever’s disease, is common between roughly 8 and 14 — and pages about it are written for the parent, not the child.

Your rights

Depending on where you live you may have the right to see what personal information we hold about you, to have it corrected, to have it deleted, to opt out of its sale (we do not sell it), and not to be treated differently for exercising any of these. Residents of California, Colorado, Connecticut, Virginia and other states with comprehensive privacy laws, and readers in the UK and EU, all have some version of these rights.

To exercise any of them, email michiganfootdoctors@gmail.com with “Heel Guide privacy request” in the subject line. We will respond within the time your law allows and may need to confirm your identity first. Every marketing email we send also carries a one-click unsubscribe link.

Security and retention

The site is served over HTTPS on managed hosting with platform-level security controls. No website can promise perfect security, and we do not. We keep form submissions only as long as needed to deal with your enquiry and to meet our record-keeping obligations, then delete them.

Links out

We link to research papers, professional bodies, retailers and Dr. Biernacki’s clinical practice. Once you leave this site, this policy no longer applies. Read theirs.

Changes

If this policy changes materially, the date at the top of the page changes with it. Continuing to use the site after a change means you accept the revised policy.