Gut Pathways
Privacy Policy
Who is responsible
The controller of your data on gutpathways.com is Theodoros Prevedoros, the author and owner of the site (“I”). You can reach me through the contact page or at gutpathways@gmail.com.
What I collect and why
- Contact form. Your name, email address, the reason you chose and your message. The form sends them to me as an email. I use them only to reply to you. I keep the email for as long as it is needed to answer you and for a reasonable time afterwards, then I delete it.
- Free excerpt and emails. If you sign up, I store your email address, the date and time, the page you signed up on, and the exact consent text you saw, together with its version. I keep this list in a Google Sheet that only I can open, and Google processes the data on my behalf. The excerpt opens right away, so no email is sent to you at this step. Later, I may send you occasional emails with new articles, because you agreed to it. If I start using an email service, I will move your address there and update this policy first. I keep your address until you unsubscribe or ask me to delete it. To do that, write to me through the contact page or at gutpathways@gmail.com and I will remove you from the list.
- Videos from YouTube. Some pages show a video. The player is loaded from YouTube (Google) through its privacy-enhanced address, youtube-nocookie.com. When such a page opens, your IP address and browser details reach YouTube. YouTube stores no information about you until you play the video, and when you play it, YouTube may set cookies or similar storage. YouTube’s own privacy policy applies to this.
- Technical logs. My hosting provider keeps server logs with your IP address, browser type and the pages requested. It also delivers the pages through its own network and checks the site’s files for malware. This is needed to run the site and to keep it secure.
- Sign-in protection. When someone tries to sign in to the admin area of the site and fails, a security tool on this site stores the IP address, the username that was typed and the time. It keeps them in the site’s own database, uses them only to block repeated attempts, and does not send them to anyone else. I do this on the basis of my legitimate interest in keeping the site secure. Ordinary visitors who do not try to sign in are not recorded.
- Page and button counts. To see which articles are useful, this site counts how many times each page is opened and how many times its buttons are clicked (for example “Buy on Amazon” or “See the book”), as totals per page and per day. It does not use cookies, stores nothing in your browser and keeps no IP address or other detail about you, only the totals. The counts stay in the site’s own database and are not shared with anyone. I do this on the basis of my legitimate interest in improving the site. Signed-in users are not counted.
- The IBS quiz. The quiz is for adults aged 18 or older. Parents can answer it for a child.
- Without the consent box. If you do not tick the box, your answers stay in your browser. Your result is worked out on your own device, and nothing is sent to me or to anyone else.
- With the consent box. If you tick it, your answers and the short note you may write are sent from this site to Google’s Gemini API, which writes the personal parts of your result. Before that, email addresses, phone numbers, web addresses and long numbers are removed from your note, first in your browser and again on the server. Google does not use this data to improve its products. It keeps it for 55 days to detect abuse, and only authorised Google staff can see it for that purpose.
- What this site keeps. This site does not keep your answers or your note. So that the same person gets the same result, it keeps the text written for you by the AI for 30 days and then deletes it. This text may repeat parts of your note. It is filed under a code made from your IP address and the options you picked, scrambled with a secret key, so the code cannot be turned back into your IP address or your answers. The site also counts how many quizzes were taken each day, how often the AI part failed and how often the “see a doctor” notice appeared, without any content. To stop misuse, it keeps a scrambled (hashed) form of your IP address for one hour and then deletes it.
- Your result by email. Your result is emailed only after you tick a box that agrees to it. If parts of your result were written by AI, the email includes them, taken from the copy this site keeps and not from your browser. If you ask for your result by email, I use your address only to send it, unless you also tick “Also send me occasional new articles”. In that case your address joins the list described under “Free excerpt and emails”. A copy of the same email, without your email address, is sent to me so that I can check the quality of the results. I delete these copies after 30 days. The email is sent through my email provider, which processes it on my behalf.
- A note in your browser. Your browser keeps a small note (local storage) that you took the quiz or closed the quiz pop-up, so the site does not keep asking you. If you ticked the consent box, it also keeps the text written for you for 30 days, so the same choices show the same result on this device. It stays on your device and is never sent to me. Clearing your browser’s site data removes it.
Cookies
At the time of writing, this site does not use advertising or analytics cookies. Visitors who do not log in receive no cookies from the site itself. The only exception is a video from YouTube that you choose to play, as described above. If that changes, I will update this policy and ask for your consent first where the law requires it.
On what legal basis
I process the data you send through the contact form and the signup form on the basis of your consent and, for answering you, my legitimate interest in replying to your message. Server logs are kept on the basis of my legitimate interest in running and securing the site. Your quiz answers can include health information. I process them only with your explicit consent, the box you tick, and you can take the quiz without giving it.
Who else sees your data
I do not sell your data. It is shared only with the providers that make the site work, such as the hosting provider, Google (for the signup list, and the Gemini API for the quiz), my email provider (for quiz results) and YouTube for the videos, and only for that purpose. If a provider processes data outside the European Economic Area, it must do so under a legal safeguard such as standard contractual clauses.
The links to the book lead to Amazon. When you follow one, you leave this site, and Amazon’s own privacy policy applies.
Your rights
You can ask me for a copy of your data, ask me to correct or delete it, ask me to limit its use, object to it, or withdraw your consent at any time. Withdrawing consent does not affect what was done before. Write to me through the contact page.
You also have the right to complain to a data protection authority. In Greece this is the Hellenic Data Protection Authority (dpa.gr). You can also contact the authority of your own country.
Children
This site is written for adults and is not meant for children. The quiz is for adults only, and parents can answer it for a child.
Changes
I may change this policy. The date at the top shows the last change.