Privacy

Who is responsible for your data?

PlainMedicare is operated by Kiznis Studio, an independent data-engineering studio in Lithuania; the studio is solo-operated, and it is responsible for the data described here. Write to hello@plainmedicare.com about anything on this page.

What happens before and after you choose?

Where the GDPR, the UK GDPR or Switzerland's data protection law applies (the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom and Switzerland), a consent message from our ad network opens on your first visit. Until you choose, nothing is stored on your device except what security needs, Google Analytics is not loaded and ads are not personalised; if the message does not load, a browser set to a European time zone never loads Google Analytics. What you accept is passed on to each tool, and you can change it at any time from the message's settings link.

Elsewhere, Google Analytics loads after the page, and ads follow the ad network's rules for your region. In the United States you can opt out of the sale or sharing of personal information for advertising, as described under “Your choices”.

What runs, what does it store, and for how long?

Journey by Mediavine

Serves the ads and the consent message (IAB TCF v2.2); its partners bid for the ad space. It stores or receives cookies and similar identifiers, your IP address, browser and device details and the pages you read, according to your choice and as Mediavine's privacy policy sets out. Legal basis under the GDPR: your consent.

Google Analytics 4

Measures traffic and how pages are used. It stores a cookie (_ga, up to 2 years) with a pseudonymous device identifier and receives the pages you view and an approximate location derived from your IP address, which Google does not store. Event data is kept for at most 14 months, the longest Google Analytics offers. Legal basis under the GDPR: your consent.

Umami, on the studio's own server

Counts visits per page, where they came from and the kind of device. It sets no cookies and keeps no identifier; your IP address is used to count the visit and is not stored. Legal basis: legitimate interest in knowing which pages are read.

Cloudflare

Delivers the pages and blocks abusive traffic. It may set a security cookie (__cf_bm, 30 minutes) that tells people from bots, and keeps request logs as Cloudflare's privacy policy sets out. Legal basis: legitimate interest in security.

Our web server

Keeps an access log (IP address, time, page, browser) that is deleted after 7 days. Legal basis: legitimate interest in security and fixing faults.

Sentry

Reports errors on our server: when a page fails, it receives the address requested, the browser and the time, kept for at most 90 days. Nothing of it runs in your browser. Legal basis: legitimate interest in keeping the site working.

Your browser

Remembers the light or dark theme you picked, as one setting in local storage that never leaves your device.

Google, Mediavine and its partners, Cloudflare and Sentry may process data in the United States and elsewhere, relying on the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework or the European Commission's standard contractual clauses.

What are your choices?

Change your consent at any time from the consent message's settings link. To opt out of personalised ads and of the sale or sharing of your personal information for advertising, use Mediavine's ad choices or optout.aboutads.info. If your browser sends the Global Privacy Control signal, PlainMedicare treats it as an opt-out of sale and sharing for the Google tags on the site, wherever you are: they share no ad data with Google and ads are not personalised through them. You can also block or delete cookies in your browser.

What are your rights?

Where the GDPR, the UK GDPR or Switzerland's law applies, you can ask for access to data about you, its correction or deletion, a restriction of its use and a copy you can take elsewhere; you can object to use based on legitimate interest and withdraw consent at any time. U.S. state laws give similar rights, including the right to opt out of sale or sharing. Write to hello@plainmedicare.com; we answer within a month. PlainMedicare itself holds nothing that identifies you, so most requests concern the tools above, and we pass them on or tell you where to send them. You can also complain to your data protection authority.

Is the data on the pages about you?

The plans, counts and costs on PlainMedicare come from public CMS files about plans and insurers. Enrollment figures are totals CMS publishes per plan and county, with counts under 11 hidden, and describe no individual.

Is it for children?

PlainMedicare is a reference site for adults choosing Medicare coverage and their families, and it does not knowingly collect data from children.