Privacy Policy

Effective Date: May 1, 2026 · Last Updated: May 1, 2026

The Society of Medicine & Curiosity does not sell, share, rent, trade, or otherwise monetise member data. Ever. This is not a legal technicality. It is a value.

Who We Are

The Society of Medicine & Curiosity (SMAC) is a health professions micro-learning publication operating at thesmac.org. The Society is operated by The Curator — an individual who has chosen to remain anonymous in service of the mission. References to "we," "us," or "the Society" in this policy refer to the publication and its operator.

What Information We Collect

The Society collects only the minimum information necessary to operate the publication and communicate with Fellows.

Email address — collected when you subscribe to the Society's newsletter or create a member account. Used exclusively to send you the Society's content and account-related communications.
Name — optional, collected only if you provide it during signup. Used to personalise correspondence.
Usage data — basic analytics about how you interact with the site, collected through privacy-respecting tools. This data is aggregated and not linked to individual identities.

We do not collect payment information directly. If paid membership tiers are introduced in the future, payments will be processed through a third-party provider whose own privacy policy will apply to that transaction.

How We Use Your Information

Your information is used for the following purposes only:

To send you the Society's newsletter and content dispatches
To notify you of changes to your membership or account
To respond to correspondence sent to hello@thesmac.org
To understand, in aggregate, how Fellows engage with the Society's content

We do not use your information for advertising, profiling, or any purpose not listed above.

The Society uses Ghost(Pro) to operate this publication. Your email address and membership data are stored on Ghost's infrastructure. Ghost's privacy policy is available at ghost.org/privacy.

We do not share your information with any other third parties. We do not use advertising networks, social media tracking pixels, or data brokers.

Email Communications

By subscribing to the Society's newsletter, you consent to receiving periodic email dispatches from The Society of Medicine & Curiosity. You may unsubscribe at any time using the unsubscribe link included in every email. Unsubscribing removes you from the mailing list immediately. The Society does not send unsolicited email.

Your Rights

You have the right to access, correct, or delete the personal information the Society holds about you. To exercise any of these rights, contact us at hello@thesmac.org. We will respond within 30 days.

If you are located in the European Economic Area, you have additional rights under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), including the right to data portability and the right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority.

Cookies

The Society's website uses cookies necessary for the site to function — for example, to keep you logged in to your member account. We do not use tracking cookies, advertising cookies, or any cookies designed to follow you across other websites.

Data Retention

We retain your email address and membership information for as long as your account is active. If you delete your account or unsubscribe, your data is removed from our active systems. Residual copies in backups are deleted on a rolling basis.

Changes to This Policy

If we make material changes to this Privacy Policy, we will notify active subscribers by email before those changes take effect. The effective date at the top of this page will be updated accordingly.

Contact

Privacy-related questions and requests can be directed to hello@thesmac.org. The Society reads everything. Responses are considered, not automatic.

The Society of Medicine & Curiosity · thesmac.org · EST. MMXXVI