Last updated: September 20, 2026 Effective date: September 20, 2026
This Privacy Policy explains how GigHz LLC, doing business as Guide.md (“Guide.md,” “we,” “us,” or “our”), collects, uses, discloses, and retains information through Guide.md.
It applies to visitors, people who search the directory, healthcare professionals, practice representatives, account holders, and people who contact us. It does not govern third-party websites or services that have their own privacy practices.
1. Information we collect
Information you provide
Depending on how you use Guide.md, we may collect:
- Account information, such as your name, email address, login credentials, and account settings.
- Professional profile information, such as credentials, specialty, education, training, affiliations, practice locations, office hours, services, languages, biography, professional links, photographs, and video.
- Claim and verification information used to confirm identity or authority to manage a profile: the name you type, the email address you confirm, your IP address, and the time.
- Transaction information, such as plan, billing status, transaction identifiers, and limited payment information made available by our payment processor.
- Communications, such as support requests, correction requests, suppression requests, disputes, feedback, and survey responses, including any authorization document you attach.
- Search inputs, such as provider name, specialty, location, condition, procedure, or other text entered into search.
- Appointment requests you send to a practice through its profile: your name, phone, email, whether you are a new or existing patient, the reason for the visit, preferred times, and insurance. These go to the practice you chose and are shown on that provider’s account page; Guide.md deletes them 180 days after they are sent.
- AI-assisted writing inputs and outputs, such as prompts, drafts, edits, and publishing choices.
- Other content you submit to the Service.
Do not submit medical records, patient identifiers, or protected health information through Guide.md’s public directory or profile-writing tools.
Information from public and other sources
Guide.md may receive professional information from:
- public government databases, including NPPES and other CMS datasets;
- practice, hospital, university, or professional websites, when a provider or an authorized representative points us to them or when we research a profile at a provider’s request;
- the healthcare professional, practice, or an authorized representative; and
- other sources identified on our Data Sources and Corrections page.
Public-source information may be incomplete, delayed, incorrect, or no longer current. An unclaimed profile is not presented as provider-confirmed.
Information collected automatically
Depending on the page and your choices, Guide.md may collect:
- IP address and approximate location derived from it;
- device, browser, operating-system, and language information;
- pages viewed, links selected, referring page, date, time, and interaction events;
- cookie or similar identifiers; and
- security, performance, and diagnostic logs.
We limit the use of health-related search information as described below.
2. Health-related searches
A search for a provider, specialty, condition, symptom, procedure, or service can reveal information about a person’s health interests.
Guide.md uses health-related search information to provide the requested directory or search functionality, maintain security, prevent abuse, diagnose technical problems, and improve the Service in ways consistent with the context in which the search was made.
Guide.md does not use health-related search terms for targeted advertising, retargeting, lookalike audiences, or sale to data brokers. No advertising or retargeting pixel is loaded on Guide.md.
Search text is not stored in Guide.md’s own database. Two things do hold it for a limited time: the interpretation of an unusual search may be cached for up to 30 days so the same question is not sent to the model twice, and our web-server and analytics records include the address of the page you were on, which for a search page includes the search terms. Web-server logs live in a fixed-size rolling buffer on our server and are overwritten as new entries arrive; they are not archived. Analytics records are held by Google Analytics under its standard retention. Neither is used for advertising. Our Referrer-Policy is set so that a Guide.md search address is not passed to other sites when you follow a link.
Users should not enter medical records, patient identifiers, or information unnecessary to find a provider.
3. How we use information
We may use information to:
- provide directory search, profiles, accounts, claims, verification, subscriptions, and support;
- display and update professional profiles;
- verify identity, authority, and account control;
- process payments, credits, renewals, and cancellations;
- provide AI-assisted search or writing functions requested by a user;
- detect fraud, impersonation, abuse, scraping, and security threats;
- diagnose errors and improve performance, usability, and accessibility;
- communicate about accounts, transactions, policy changes, corrections, suppression requests, and support;
- send marketing communications where permitted and honor opt-out choices;
- comply with law, enforce agreements, and protect rights and safety; and
- create aggregate or deidentified information that is not reasonably linkable to an individual.
Payment status is not treated as a statement of clinical quality.
4. Public professional profiles
Guide.md may publish professional profiles using public, verified, or provider-supplied professional information.
Information published on a public profile may be viewed, copied, indexed, quoted, cached, or summarized by search engines, AI systems, archives, and other third parties. Removing information from Guide.md does not necessarily remove copies already held by third parties.
An unclaimed profile has not been confirmed by the person it describes.
Providers and authorized representatives may request correction or public suppression without purchasing a subscription or claiming the profile.
5. Corrections and public suppression
A correction request asks Guide.md to fix inaccurate information while keeping a profile public.
A public-suppression request asks Guide.md to make the Guide.md profile unavailable to the public. Once a verified suppression request is completed, Guide.md removes the profile from its public directory, its search, its listing pages and its sitemaps, answers requests for the old address with a “gone” status that names nobody, and takes reasonable technical steps to have the Guide.md URL dropped from search-engine indexes.
Guide.md retains the NPI and a limited internal suppression record so that later public-data refreshes do not automatically recreate the profile.
Public suppression does not delete or modify the underlying NPPES, CMS, licensing-board, or other third-party record.
We may request information reasonably necessary to verify the identity of the provider or the authority of a representative making the request. Claiming a profile is not required. A government identity document is not required merely to suppress a public listing unless there is a genuine dispute about who is asking.
To request a correction or suppression, use our Contact page or email the address listed below.
6. How we disclose information
Guide.md may disclose information:
- publicly, when it is part of a public professional profile or publication;
- to hosting, database, security, email, storage, and infrastructure providers;
- to payment processors for billing and transaction support;
- to identity-verification providers when a claim requires verification;
- to AI-service providers when a user requests an AI-assisted function, or when a provider asks for a visibility report or profile research;
- to analytics providers used for the relevant page and data type;
- to professional advisers, auditors, insurers, and financing parties subject to appropriate duties;
- to authorities or other parties when reasonably necessary to comply with law, protect rights or safety, investigate fraud, or enforce agreements;
- in connection with a merger, financing, acquisition, reorganization, bankruptcy, or sale of all or part of the business; and
- at your direction or with your consent.
Guide.md does not sell provider profile data as a data-broker product, and does not sell or share personal information for targeted advertising. The service providers we use, and what each receives, are listed on our Service Providers page.
7. AI-assisted features
Guide.md uses third-party AI services to interpret a search request, organize information, summarize public data, build the free visibility report, and help a provider draft profile content.
When a user requests an AI-assisted feature, the information necessary to provide that feature is sent to the applicable AI-service provider. Today that is Google (the Gemini models) for search interpretation, visibility reports, condition and procedure inference and profile enrichment; OpenAI may be used for some writing features when configured. What is sent is the search text, the public profile facts, or the text the provider typed; not account credentials and not payment information. We do not have a contractual guarantee from these providers that submitted data is excluded from their model training, and we do not claim one.
Guide.md does not treat AI output as independently verified merely because it was generated by an automated system. Provider-facing AI drafts must be reviewed before they are published.
8. Payments and claim verification
Guide.md uses Stripe to process transactions. Guide.md does not store full payment-card numbers or card security codes on its own application servers; Stripe holds them. If you buy the optional identity-verified checkmark, Stripe Identity collects your identity document and a selfie on Stripe’s own pages; Guide.md receives only the result, the name on the document, and a reference.
Most profile claims are verified by email: a message to a practice, hospital or institutional address, and the name typed as it appears on the record. Where an address cannot be matched to the record, or a profile is being taken back from someone else, Guide.md reviews what the claimant sends against the record and the confirmation log. Guide.md does not request or store government identity documents for claims. Separately, a provider who already holds a profile may buy an optional identity-verified checkmark; that check is performed by Stripe Identity, the document and selfie go to Stripe and never to Guide.md, and Guide.md stores the result, the date and the Stripe reference. The checkmark is a visual mark only and has no effect on ranking or listings.
9. Cookies and analytics
Guide.md uses cookies or similar technologies that are reasonably necessary for authentication, security, preferences, and operation of the Service, including a first-party cookie that remembers when a provider arrived from an email we sent them, so we can tell which outreach worked.
Guide.md uses Google Analytics to understand site usage, performance, and errors.
Guide.md does not use health-related search information for targeted advertising or retargeting, and loads no advertising or retargeting technology.
If Guide.md introduces technology that constitutes sale, sharing, or targeted advertising under applicable privacy law, Guide.md will update this Policy and provide the legally required notice and opt-out controls before using that technology in that manner.
10. Data retention
Guide.md retains information only for as long as reasonably necessary for the purposes described in this Policy, including operation of the Service, security, fraud prevention, billing, dispute resolution, legal compliance, enforcement, and honoring suppression or marketing choices.
Different categories have different retention periods. Guide.md may retain:
- public professional-source data while relevant to the directory purpose, subject to correction and suppression controls;
- account and claimed-profile administration data while an account is active and for a reasonable period afterward;
- billing and tax records as required for accounting, tax, payment, or legal purposes;
- support, correction, dispute, and suppression records for a reasonable period after resolution;
- the confirmation log — who confirmed which profile, from which address, from which IP address, when — for as long as the profile exists, because it is what settles a dispute over ownership;
- appointment requests for 180 days after they are sent, then deleted automatically;
- security and fraud-prevention records where reasonably needed;
- marketing preference records, including the do-not-contact list, for as long as needed to honor the preference; and
- a minimal provider-suppression record for as long as reasonably needed to prevent an approved suppressed profile from being automatically republished.
11. Security
Guide.md uses administrative, technical, and organizational safeguards designed to protect information appropriate to its nature and the risks involved. Secrets are stored encrypted; verification documents never reach our servers.
No online service can guarantee absolute security. If we learn of a security incident that triggers a legal notice obligation, we will provide notice as required by applicable law.
12. Your choices and privacy rights
You may:
- update supported account or claimed-profile information;
- unsubscribe from marketing email using the link in the message, or reply “remove”;
- manage browser-cookie settings, recognizing that some features may stop working;
- request correction or public suppression of a professional profile; and
- submit a privacy request through the Contact page or privacy email listed below.
Depending on where you live and whether an applicable privacy law covers Guide.md and the information at issue, you may have rights concerning access, correction, deletion, portability, disclosure, opt-out, limitation, consent withdrawal, or appeal.
Some professional information obtained from public government records may be excluded from certain privacy-law definitions or deletion rights. A privacy or account-deletion request is also different from a request to suppress a Guide.md professional profile; either can be made without the other.
We may verify identity or authority before completing a request. Authorized agents may be required to provide reasonable proof of authority.
We will not unlawfully discriminate against a person for exercising an applicable privacy right.
13. Appeals
Where applicable law provides a right to appeal a denied privacy request, email the privacy address below with “Privacy Appeal” in the subject line, or choose “Privacy appeal” on the Contact page, and explain the request and the decision being appealed.
14. Children
Guide.md is not directed to children under 13. Children under 13 may not create accounts.
Provider accounts, profile claims, and purchases are limited to adults able to enter a binding agreement.
If Guide.md learns that it collected personal information from a child in violation of applicable law, it will take appropriate steps to delete the information.
15. United States processing
Guide.md is operated from the United States. Information may be processed in the United States and in other locations where service providers operate, subject to applicable law and contractual safeguards.
16. Third-party services and links
Provider websites, public databases, social platforms, video hosts, payment services, and other linked services control their own privacy practices. Guide.md is not responsible for the privacy practices of third parties it does not control.
17. California privacy information
California residents may have rights under the California Consumer Privacy Act, as amended, when the law applies to Guide.md and the information at issue.
California law excludes certain publicly available information, including information from federal, state, or local government records, from the definition of personal information for CCPA purposes. This can include professional information drawn from public government records.
That does not prevent a provider from using Guide.md’s separate correction or public-suppression process.
Guide.md does not sell personal information, does not share personal information for cross-context behavioral advertising, and does not use health-related search information for targeted advertising or retargeting. Because Guide.md does not sell or share personal information, no “Do Not Sell or Share” link is provided; if that changes, the link and the notice will be added first.
18. Consumer health data
Some state laws regulate information that identifies or can be linked to a consumer’s health status or health-related activity.
Guide.md minimizes the collection and use of health-related search information and does not use health-related searches for targeted advertising, retargeting, lookalike audiences, or data brokerage. The only health-related information a person gives us directly is the reason for a visit in an appointment request, which goes to the practice they chose. Our Consumer Health Data Privacy Policy says how that is handled.
19. Changes to this Policy
We may update this Policy when the product, vendors, law, or our practices change.
We will update the “Last updated” date above and provide additional notice when required by law.
20. Contact
GigHz LLC d/b/a Guide.md
Los Angeles, California
Privacy requests: [email protected] (subject “Privacy request” or “Privacy Appeal”)
Corrections and suppression: [email protected], or the Contact page.