Privacy

Privacy policy

Care Path Compare is an independent consumer publication. This policy explains the limited information processed when you visit the site, use optional analytics, select an affiliate link, or submit the general contact form.

Information you submit

The contact form may collect your full name, an optional company or organization, your email address, and your message. We use this information to review and respond to editorial questions, corrections, business inquiries, provider information, or general feedback.

Formspree processing

Formspree processes contact-form submissions on behalf of Care Path Compare and delivers them to the publication’s configured recipient. Form submissions are not automatically added to a marketing list or used to determine medical eligibility.

Do not submit sensitive health information

Do not submit medical records, diagnosis details, medication information, prescription requests, insurance information, or other sensitive health information. Care Path Compare does not operate a health-information intake service, does not use the contact form to provide healthcare, and does not represent that this general contact channel is covered by HIPAA.

Hosting, regional lookup, and security information

The hosting, content-delivery, and security services used to provide the site may process standard request information such as an IP address, browser and device information, requested URL, timestamp, referrer, and security signals. This information may be used to deliver pages, determine the applicable privacy experience, troubleshoot errors, prevent abuse, and protect the site.

A short-lived Vercel function reads country and state request headers to determine whether the Washington analytics-consent experience applies. The function returns only the country, region, and whether additional consent is required. It does not return the visitor’s IP address to page code or send the state value to Google Analytics.

Sanitized Google Analytics measurement

Care Path Compare uses Google Analytics 4 for broad site measurement where permitted. Outside regions requiring prior opt-in, analytics may begin by default unless you previously turned it off or your browser sends a Global Privacy Control signal. Washington visitors are asked for consent before optional analytics begins.

The site sends manual page-view events using generic categories such as home, hub, article, policy, or contact. The site replaces descriptive page URLs, healthcare article titles, and referrers with generic measurement values before sending those events. Automatic enhanced measurement is disabled in the Care Path Compare GA4 web stream.

When analytics is active, Google Analytics may process a first-party analytics identifier, session information, approximate location, browser and device characteristics, generic page categories, and the limited interaction events described below. Advertising storage, advertising personalization, advertising user data, remarketing, and Google Signals remain disabled.

Sanitized affiliate-click measurement

When analytics is active, the site may send an affiliate_click event when you select an approved affiliate link. The custom event is limited to an opaque affiliate token, opaque destination, source-page, and CTA tokens, general CTA placement, and a generic page category. It does not send the provider name, medication name, affiliate network, affiliate program identifier, destination domain, destination URL, descriptive page path, article title, form contents, eligibility answers, or contact information.

Analytics preferences and Global Privacy Control

Use Analytics preferences in the footer to turn analytics on or off. The site stores an analytics preference in your browser using the local-storage keycpc_measurement_preference_v2. Clearing browser storage resets the saved choice.

When the browser sends a Global Privacy Control signal, Care Path Compare keeps optional analytics disabled for that browser session. Declining or withdrawing analytics does not limit access to site content.

Washington consumer health data choices

Because Care Path Compare discusses healthcare options, Washington visitors are asked to make separate choices before optional measurement begins: consent for collection of the sanitized analytics information and separate consent to share that information with Google Analytics. Additional disclosures and rights are described in theconsumer health data privacy policy.

Cookies

When analytics is off, the Care Path Compare implementation does not load the Google Analytics tag and removes first-party _ga cookies where the browser permits. When analytics is active, Google Analytics may set first-party analytics cookies or identifiers. Browser settings and the Google Analytics opt-out add-on may provide additional controls.

Affiliate links and third-party sites

Some outbound provider links are affiliate links. Selecting one sends you directly to a third-party provider, retailer, or affiliate-network destination. Those third parties may process referral information and apply their own cookies, identifiers, terms, and privacy practices. Care Path Compare does not control their sites or data handling after you leave this site.

Outside Washington, when optional analytics is active, supported affiliate networks may also receive privacy-safe attribution parameters on the outbound link. Care Path Compare limits these parameters to a generic website source, opaque source-page, CTA, and destination tokens, general CTA placement, and a tracking-schema version. They do not contain provider or medication names, descriptive healthcare page paths, article titles, form contents, eligibility answers, or contact information. These optional parameters are not added when analytics is off, a Global Privacy Control signal is present, regional privacy rules cannot be resolved, or the visitor is in Washington.

Data retention

Contact messages are retained only as reasonably needed to respond, maintain business records, document corrections, or meet legal obligations. Google Analytics retention is controlled in the Care Path Compare property. Event-level exploration data should remain no longer than 14 months unless a shorter period is selected. Aggregated reporting may be retained differently by Google.

Your choices

• Open Analytics preferences in the footer to allow or turn off analytics.
• Use a browser that sends Global Privacy Control.
• Clear this site’s cookies and local storage in your browser.
• Use the Google Analytics browser opt-out add-on.
• Do not use the contact form for sensitive health information.
• Contact Care Path Compare to ask about a message you previously submitted.

External privacy information

Google explains its own processing in theGoogle Privacy Policy. Google also provides aGoogle Analytics browser opt-out add-on. Third-party providers and affiliate networks publish their own privacy policies.

Policy changes

We may update this policy when data practices, service providers, legal requirements, or site features change. Material operational changes should be reflected here before or when the affected feature is enabled.

This policy describes Care Path Compare’s current practices and is not a representation that the site is subject to every privacy law in every jurisdiction.

Effective August 4, 2026Last updated August 8, 2026