Privacy Policy

1. Who we are

The Fertility Link (“we”, “our”, “us”) operates the website at thefertilitylink.com. We are a fertility-navigation directory headquartered in Ontario, Canada. We comply with Canada's Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA), Ontario's Personal Health Information Protection Act (PHIPA) for health-context information, and the California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA) for California residents.

2. Information we collect

Account information

When you register, we collect your name and email address. If you choose to use phone-based features, we also collect your phone number.

Navigator inputs

To generate your personalized roadmap, you provide your province or state, age, fertility situation, and (optionally) prior diagnostic information. This is stored linked to your account so you can revisit your roadmap.

Lead inquiries

When you submit an inquiry to a specific clinic, we store the treatment of interest, urgency, your preferred contact method, your contact information, and any optional message you provide. This information is associated with the specific clinic you selected.

Usage and technical data

We log standard server-side technical data: timestamp, IP address (for security and rate limiting only, not for behavioral profiling), pages viewed, and basic browser type. We do not use third-party analytics that track you across the web. We use only essential first-party cookies for authentication and session continuity.

3. How we use your information

• To provide the personalized roadmap, clinic-matching, and inbox features of the service.
• To deliver inquiries you initiate to the specific clinics you select.
• To send you transactional emails (account confirmations, inquiry receipts, replies from clinics).
• To improve the service through aggregate, anonymized analysis (which clinics rank well, which provinces have the most interest, etc.).
• To comply with legal obligations and protect against abuse.

We never use your information for advertising, profiling, ad-tech tracking, or sale to data brokers.

4. Who we share information with

We share specific pieces of information with a small, defined set of parties:

• The specific clinic you contact: when you submit an inquiry, the contents of that inquiry (treatment, urgency, contact info, and your optional message) are made available to the verified owner of that specific clinic listing. Until the clinic verifies their listing, only an anonymous teaser (your initials, treatment, province) is sent to them by email, with full contact details unlocked only after they verify.
• Infrastructure providers: our application is hosted on DigitalOcean (Canada). Email is delivered via Mailgun. These providers process information on our behalf under data-processing agreements and do not use it for their own purposes.
• Legal authorities: if compelled by valid legal process (subpoena, court order, law-enforcement warrant) applicable in our jurisdiction.

We do not share with advertisers, data brokers, or marketing partners.

5. Your rights

Under PIPEDA, PHIPA, and CPRA, you have the right to:

• Access the personal information we hold about you.
• Correct inaccurate information.
• Delete your account and all associated information.
• Withdraw consent for any optional data use.
• Receive a copy of your data in a portable format.
• (California residents only) Opt out of any “sale” or “sharing” of personal information — though we do not sell or share for advertising purposes, so this opt-out is effectively automatic for our service.

To exercise any of these rights, email privacy@thefertilitylink.com from the email address associated with your account.

6. Retention

We retain account information and navigator inputs for as long as your account is active. Inquiries you've submitted to clinics are retained for 24 months after the last activity on that inquiry, to allow you and the clinic to reference past correspondence. After 24 months of inactivity, inquiry contents are anonymized (clinic name retained, your personal contact stripped). You may request immediate deletion at any time.

7. Children

The Fertility Link is intended for adults aged 18 and over. We do not knowingly collect information from anyone under 18. If you become aware that a child has provided us with personal information, contact us and we will delete it.

8. International transfers

Personal information is processed on servers located in Canada. If you are in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom, or another jurisdiction with stricter cross-border data rules, please note that using our service involves transferring your data to Canada, which has been designated by the European Commission as providing adequate protection for personal data.

9. Security

We use industry-standard security measures including HTTPS encryption for all data in transit, encryption at rest for sensitive fields (API keys, claim proof documents), parameterized database queries to prevent injection, and role-based access controls. No system is perfectly secure; we will notify affected users promptly in the event of a data breach involving personal information.

10. Cookies

We use only essential first-party cookies required for authentication, session management, and security (CSRF protection). We do not use any third-party advertising cookies, analytics cookies, or social-media tracking pixels.

11. Changes to this policy

If we make material changes to this Privacy Policy, we will notify registered users by email and post a notice on the homepage at least 30 days before the change takes effect.

12. Contact

Questions, requests, or complaints about your privacy may be sent to privacy@thefertilitylink.com. If you are not satisfied with our response, you may contact the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada or your local privacy regulator.