Privacy policy

DocBeat ("we," "our," or "us") operates the website docbeat.ai. This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, and protect information when you use our service. By using DocBeat, you agree to the practices described in this policy. DocBeat is a free, public-facing information service. We do not require you to create an account or submit personal health information to use our physician search tool.

If you sign up to be notified (when we cover your state, or when a physician near your search is accepting new patients), we store the email address you enter, which notification you asked for, and the search it relates to. We use it for that one message only and delete it once the message has been sent or on request. We collect the following types of information: Search queries. When you use our search feature, we may log the text of your query to improve our search results and understand how people use the service. These logs do not include personally identifiable information unless you choose to type personal details into the search bar. Usage data. The site records which pages and physician listings were shown, opened and called, which filters and map views were used, how far down each page you read and how long the page was open, and text typed into the search box even when no search was run, together with a coarse region such as "US-MA". Events within one visit are linked by a random identifier that lives only in your browser tab and disappears when the tab closes. It does not record your IP address or your browser's identifying string. Our hosting provider processes your IP address to deliver pages and keeps short-lived request logs that we do not retain. We use Vercel Web Analytics for page-view counts, which sets no cookies and does not identify you. Cookies. The site sets one cookie of its own, a random visitor identifier that lets us tell a returning browser from a new one and see how a search on one day leads to a call on another. It contains no name, email or account, is never sold or shared, and expires after 400 days; clearing your browser's cookies removes it. Microsoft Clarity, described below, sets a small number of its own cookies to recognise a session for its recordings, governed by Microsoft's privacy policy. The site also keeps a call list you build yourself in your browser's own storage, which is never sent to us. Session recordings. During our testing phase we use Microsoft Clarity to record how visitors use the site: mouse movement, scrolling, taps and clicks, and the pages visited, played back as a recording, together with heatmaps of where people click. Recordings are tagged with the visitor identifier above, not with any name. Clarity may mask what you type; the recordings are used by the two founders to improve the site and for nothing else. Clarity's own privacy policy governs its processing; Microsoft keeps recordings for a limited period set by Clarity (currently 30 days). What we do not collect. No account, no login, no name unless you write to us, no health information, no precise location unless you press "Near me" for one search, and nothing from your device beyond its screen size class. Advertising. DocBeat does not currently display advertising and does not run advertising cookies or third-party ad scripts. If that changes, we will update this policy and say so here before any advertising appears.

We use the information we collect to: Provide and improve the DocBeat service. Analyze how visitors use the site so we can make it better. Comply with legal obligations. We do not sell your personal information to third parties, and records of an individual visit are never sold or shared. We may license statistics built from many visits in aggregate, such as how many people in a town searched for a kind of physician, from which no visit or person can be identified. We do not use your information to make decisions about your healthcare, insurance, or employment.

The physician information displayed on DocBeat is sourced from publicly available government and state databases, including the CMS National Plan and Provider Enumeration System (NPPES), CMS PECOS, and the Massachusetts Board of Registration in Medicine (BORIM). This data is public record. If you are a physician and believe information about you is inaccurate, please contact us at hello@docbeat.ai and we will review your request.

Search and usage records, including the visitor identifier on them, are deleted after 180 days. We keep monthly totals that contain no search text and nothing that links to a visit or a visitor. Session recordings are kept by Microsoft Clarity for its own retention period (currently 30 days). Error reports are deleted 180 days after we resolve them. Alert sign-ups are kept until we send the alert or you unsubscribe.

DocBeat uses the following third-party services that may collect data independently: OpenFreeMap: map tiles, which your browser requests directly when you open a map. Vercel: hosting and analytics. Microsoft Clarity: session recordings and heatmaps, as described above. Anthropic: AI-powered search query parsing (queries are not stored by Anthropic beyond the immediate request). Physician locations are geocoded using the United States Census Bureau geocoder. This happens on our servers when we prepare our data, not in your browser, so no information about you is sent to it. Each of these services has its own privacy policy governing their data practices.

DocBeat is not directed at children under 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you believe a child has provided us with personal information, please contact us at hello@docbeat.ai.

Depending on your location, you may have certain rights regarding your personal information, including the right to access, correct, or delete data we hold about you. To exercise these rights, contact us at hello@docbeat.ai. California residents may have additional rights under the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA). Massachusetts residents may have additional rights under state law.

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. We will post changes on this page with an updated date. Continued use of DocBeat after changes are posted constitutes acceptance of the updated policy.

Questions about this Privacy Policy? Contact us at hello@docbeat.ai.