PRIVACY POLICY

Last updated August 11, 2026

This Privacy Notice for VAERS Explorer ("we," "us," or "our") describes how and why we might access, collect, store, use, and/or share ("process") your personal information when you use our services ("Services"), including when you:

Visit our website at https://leafnlp.org, or any website of ours that links to this Privacy Notice
Use VAERS Explorer to search, filter, visualize, and ask AI-assisted questions about the public CDC/FDA Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) dataset
Create an account, or contact us for support

Questions or concerns? Reading this Privacy Notice will help you understand your privacy rights and choices. If you do not agree with our policies and practices, please do not use our Services. If you still have any questions or concerns, please contact us at [email protected].

SUMMARY OF KEY POINTS

What personal information do we process? When you create an account we process your name, email address, and a securely hashed password. When you use the Services we process limited technical and log data needed to operate and secure them.

Do we process any sensitive personal information? No. We do not process sensitive personal information.

Do we collect information from third parties? No. We do not collect any information from third parties, and we do not offer social-media login.

How do we process your information? We process your information to provide, improve, and administer our Services, communicate with you, and for security and fraud prevention. We do not use your personal information for advertising or marketing.

Do we sell your information? No. We do not sell or share your personal information for cross-context behavioral advertising.

How do you exercise your rights? The easiest way is to contact us at [email protected]. We will consider and act upon any request in accordance with applicable data protection laws.

WHAT INFORMATION DO WE COLLECT?
HOW DO WE PROCESS YOUR INFORMATION?
WHAT LEGAL BASES DO WE RELY ON?
WHEN AND WITH WHOM DO WE SHARE YOUR INFORMATION?
DO WE USE COOKIES AND TRACKING TECHNOLOGIES?
DO WE OFFER ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE-BASED PRODUCTS?
IS YOUR INFORMATION TRANSFERRED INTERNATIONALLY?
HOW LONG DO WE KEEP YOUR INFORMATION?
HOW DO WE KEEP YOUR INFORMATION SAFE?
DO WE COLLECT INFORMATION FROM MINORS?
WHAT ARE YOUR PRIVACY RIGHTS?
CONTROLS FOR DO-NOT-TRACK FEATURES
DO UNITED STATES RESIDENTS HAVE SPECIFIC PRIVACY RIGHTS?
DO WE MAKE UPDATES TO THIS NOTICE?
HOW CAN YOU CONTACT US ABOUT THIS NOTICE?
HOW CAN YOU REVIEW, UPDATE, OR DELETE YOUR DATA?

1. WHAT INFORMATION DO WE COLLECT?

Personal information you disclose to us

In Short: We collect personal information that you provide to us.

We collect personal information that you voluntarily provide to us when you register on the Services, or otherwise when you contact us. The personal information we collect may include:

names
email addresses
passwords (stored only as a secure, one-way hash)

Sensitive Information. We do not process sensitive information.

Payment Data. The Services are free. We do not collect or process payment information.

All personal information that you provide to us must be true, complete, and accurate, and you must notify us of any changes to such personal information.

Information automatically collected

In Short: Some information — such as your IP address and/or browser and device characteristics — is collected automatically when you visit our Services.

We automatically collect certain information when you visit, use, or navigate the Services. This information does not reveal your specific identity but may include device and usage information, such as your IP address, browser and device characteristics, operating system, referring URLs, and information about how and when you use our Services. This information is primarily needed to maintain the security and operation of our Services and for internal diagnostics. We also collect information through strictly necessary cookies; see our Cookie Policy.

2. HOW DO WE PROCESS YOUR INFORMATION?

In Short: We process your information to provide, improve, and administer our Services, communicate with you, for security and fraud prevention, and to comply with law.

To facilitate account creation and authentication and otherwise manage user accounts. So you can create and log in to your account and keep it in working order.
To deliver and facilitate delivery of services to the user. To provide you with the requested functionality, including search, visualization, and AI-assisted features.
To respond to user inquiries and offer support. To respond to your inquiries and resolve any potential issues you might have with the Services.
To send administrative information to you. Such as changes to our terms and policies, and account or security notices.
To protect our Services. As part of our efforts to keep our Services safe and secure, including fraud monitoring and prevention.
To identify usage trends and improve the Services. To understand how the Services are used so we can improve them.

3. WHAT LEGAL BASES DO WE RELY ON TO PROCESS YOUR INFORMATION?

In Short: We only process your personal information when we believe it is necessary and we have a valid legal reason (i.e., legal basis) to do so under applicable law.

If you are located in the EU or UK, we may rely on the following legal bases: Consent (which you can withdraw at any time); Performance of a Contract to provide the Services you request; Legitimate Interests to operate, secure, and improve the Services and prevent fraud; and Legal Obligations where processing is necessary for compliance with our legal obligations.

If you are located in Canada, we may process your information where you have given us express or implied consent, or where processing without consent is permitted by applicable law.

4. WHEN AND WITH WHOM DO WE SHARE YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION?

In Short: We share information only with the limited service providers needed to operate the Services.

We do not sell your personal information, and we do not share it for advertising or marketing. We may share your information with third-party vendors and service providers who perform services for us and require access to such information to do that work, under contracts designed to safeguard your personal information. The categories of third parties we may share personal information with are:

Cloud computing and website hosting providers
Email delivery providers (for account and security emails)
AI service providers (to power AI-assisted features; see Section 6)
Security and bot-mitigation providers

We may also disclose your information where required by law, or in connection with a merger, sale of company assets, financing, or acquisition of all or a portion of our business.

5. DO WE USE COOKIES AND OTHER TRACKING TECHNOLOGIES?

In Short: We use only strictly necessary cookies.

We use cookies that are strictly necessary to keep you signed in, protect account forms, and defend the Site against automated abuse. We do not use advertising, marketing, or analytics cookies, and we do not permit third parties to use tracking technologies on our Services for advertising. Specific information about the cookies we use is set out in our Cookie Policy.

6. DO WE OFFER ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE-BASED PRODUCTS?

In Short: We offer features powered by artificial intelligence that help you query and interpret the VAERS dataset.

As part of our Services, we offer features powered by artificial intelligence, machine learning, or similar technologies (collectively, "AI Products"). We provide the AI Products through third-party AI service providers. When you use an AI feature, the content of your query may be shared with and processed by these providers to generate a response. We do not send your account password to AI providers. AI-generated output may be inaccurate and should be independently verified; the AI Products do not provide medical advice.

7. IS YOUR INFORMATION TRANSFERRED INTERNATIONALLY?

In Short: We may transfer, store, and process your information in the United States.

Our servers are located in the United States. If you are accessing our Services from outside the United States, please be aware that your information may be transferred to, stored by, and processed by us and our service providers in the United States. If you are a resident in the European Economic Area (EEA), United Kingdom (UK), or Switzerland, these countries may not have data protection laws as comprehensive as those in your country; however, we take reasonable measures to protect your personal information in accordance with this Privacy Notice and applicable law.

8. HOW LONG DO WE KEEP YOUR INFORMATION?

In Short: We keep your information for as long as necessary to provide the Services, unless otherwise required by law.

We will only keep your personal information for as long as it is necessary for the purposes set out in this Privacy Notice, unless a longer retention period is required or permitted by law. When we have no ongoing legitimate business need to process your personal information, we will either delete or anonymize it, or, if this is not possible, securely store it and isolate it from any further processing until deletion is possible.

9. HOW DO WE KEEP YOUR INFORMATION SAFE?

In Short: We aim to protect your personal information through a system of organizational and technical security measures.

We have implemented appropriate and reasonable technical and organizational security measures designed to protect the security of any personal information we process, including hashing passwords. However, no electronic transmission over the Internet or information storage technology can be guaranteed to be 100% secure, so we cannot promise or guarantee that unauthorized third parties will not be able to defeat our security. You should only access the Services within a secure environment.

10. DO WE COLLECT INFORMATION FROM MINORS?

In Short: We do not knowingly collect data from or market to children under 18 years of age.

We do not knowingly collect, solicit data from, or market to children under 18 years of age. By using the Services, you represent that you are at least 18 or that you are the parent or guardian of such a minor and consent to such minor's use of the Services. If we learn that personal information from users less than 18 years of age has been collected, we will deactivate the account and take reasonable measures to promptly delete such data. If you become aware of any data we may have collected from children under age 18, please contact us at [email protected].

11. WHAT ARE YOUR PRIVACY RIGHTS?

In Short: Depending on where you are located, you may have rights that allow you greater access to and control over your personal information.

In some regions (like the EEA, UK, Switzerland, and Canada), you have certain rights under applicable data protection laws. These may include the right to request access to and obtain a copy of your personal information, to request rectification or erasure, to restrict the processing of your personal information, to data portability, and not to be subject to automated decision-making. You can make such a request by contacting us using the contact details below.

Withdrawing your consent: If we are relying on your consent to process your personal information, you have the right to withdraw your consent at any time by contacting us. This will not affect the lawfulness of processing before its withdrawal.

Account Information

If you would at any time like to review or change the information in your account or terminate your account, you can:

Upon your request to terminate your account, we will deactivate or delete your account and information from our active databases. We may retain some information to prevent fraud, troubleshoot problems, assist with investigations, enforce our legal terms, and/or comply with applicable legal requirements.

12. CONTROLS FOR DO-NOT-TRACK FEATURES

Most web browsers and some mobile operating systems include a Do-Not-Track ("DNT") feature you can activate to signal your privacy preference not to have data about your online browsing activities monitored and collected. Because we do not track users across third-party websites and do not use advertising trackers, there is no cross-site tracking behavior to disable; no uniform technology standard for recognizing DNT signals has been finalized, and we do not currently respond to DNT browser signals.

13. DO UNITED STATES RESIDENTS HAVE SPECIFIC PRIVACY RIGHTS?

In Short: If you are a resident of certain US states, you may have the right to request access to and receive details about the personal information we maintain about you, correct inaccuracies, obtain a copy of, or delete your personal information.

Categories of Personal Information We Collect

The table below shows the categories of personal information we may collect:

Category	Examples	Collected
A. Identifiers	Name, email address, unique account identifier, Internet Protocol (IP) address	YES
B. Personal information as defined in the California Customer Records statute	Name and email address	YES
C. Protected classification characteristics under state or federal law	Gender, age, race, ethnicity, national origin	NO
D. Commercial information	Transaction information, purchase history, payment information	NO
E. Biometric information	Fingerprints and voiceprints	NO
F. Internet or other similar network activity	Log data and security-related activity associated with your account	YES
G. Geolocation data	Precise device location	NO
H. Audio, electronic, sensory, or similar information	Images and audio or call recordings	NO
I. Professional or employment-related information	Job title, work history	NO
J. Education information	Student records and directory information	NO
K. Inferences drawn from collected personal information	Profiles reflecting preferences and characteristics	NO
L. Sensitive personal information		NO

Your Rights

You have rights under certain US state data protection laws. However, these rights are not absolute, and in certain cases we may decline your request as permitted by law. These rights may include:

Right to know whether or not we are processing your personal data
Right to access your personal data
Right to correct inaccuracies in your personal data
Right to request the deletion of your personal data
Right to obtain a copy of the personal data you previously shared with us
Right to non-discrimination for exercising your rights

We do not sell personal data, share it for targeted advertising, or use it for profiling that produces legal or similarly significant effects. To exercise these rights, contact us at [email protected]. We will verify your identity before acting on your request, and if we decline to take action you may appeal by replying to our decision.

14. DO WE MAKE UPDATES TO THIS NOTICE?

In Short: Yes, we will update this notice as necessary to stay compliant with relevant laws.

We may update this Privacy Notice from time to time. The updated version will be indicated by an updated "Last updated" date at the top of this Privacy Notice. If we make material changes, we may notify you either by prominently posting a notice of such changes or by directly sending you a notification.

15. HOW CAN YOU CONTACT US ABOUT THIS NOTICE?

If you have questions or comments about this notice, you may email us at [email protected] or contact us by post at:

VAERS Explorer
United States

16. HOW CAN YOU REVIEW, UPDATE, OR DELETE THE DATA WE COLLECT FROM YOU?

Based on the applicable laws of your country or state of residence, you may have the right to request access to the personal information we collect from you, details about how we have processed it, correct inaccuracies, or delete your personal information. To request to review, update, or delete your personal information, please email us at [email protected].