Privacy policy
Last updated: 7 November 2026
ClinLit AI (“we”) is an AI research assistant for clinical trials, drugs and the published literature, at clinlit.com. This policy explains what information we handle when you use the website and the chat app, why, who else receives it, and how long it’s kept. For questions or requests about your data, email [email protected].
The short version
- You don’t need an account, and we don’t ask for your name or email to use ClinLit AI.
- Your questions are sent to DeepSeek, the AI model provider, to produce answers.
- When an answer needs the web, the search terms the AI writes from your question, and the addresses of the web pages it reads, are sent to Tavily, a web search provider.
- We keep technical logs, including your questions, the answers, your IP address and any rating you give an answer, for 30 days, to fix problems, and web server logs with IP addresses for 14 days.
- Your conversation history stays in your browser, not on our servers.
- We don’t sell your data, show ads, or use your data to train AI models.
- Please don’t enter personal health information, other personal details, proprietary data or business secrets.
What we handle, and why
When you visit clinlit.com. Like any website, our servers receive your IP address, the pages you request, the time, and your browser’s user agent. We use them to deliver the site, keep it secure (for example, to limit how fast one address can send questions) and fix problems.
When you ask a question in the chat app. Your question, and up to the last ten messages of the conversation (so follow-up questions make sense), are sent to our server. Our server:
- checks that the question is about clinical research, using a model running on our own server and, for some messages, DeepSeek;
- sends it to DeepSeek to work out the answer, together with the results of the searches it runs in our database of public trial, literature and FDA drug data;
- when the question needs something our data doesn’t hold, such as a recent approval or news, sends the search terms the AI writes from it to Tavily to search the web, and the addresses of the pages it reads, including any link you give it (Tavily receives those search terms and addresses, not your conversation or your IP address);
- records the question, the conversation it came with, the steps taken to answer it, the answer and your IP address in our technical logs (with Pydantic Logfire), so we can investigate errors and improve answers.
When you rate an answer. If you mark an answer 👍 or 👎, the rating, and the comment if you write one, are sent to our server and recorded in our technical logs, linked to that answer’s log entry, so we can see which answers went wrong and why. Please keep personal details out of the comment.
When you use the feedback form. Your message, and your name and email address if you choose to give them, are emailed to us (with your IP address, to help us deal with spam), so we can read and, if you asked, reply. If you email us directly, we receive what you send.
When you report an issue on GitHub. Issues at github.com/clinlit/feedback are public, and GitHub’s own privacy statement applies to them.
What stays on your device
Your conversations are saved in your browser’s local storage, so you can return to them, along with the ratings you’ve given answers and your light or dark theme choice if you make one. They’re not stored on our servers, and you can delete them at any time from the app or by clearing your browser’s site data. ClinLit AI sets no cookies.
Who else receives your data
We use these service providers, each only for the purpose described:
| Provider | What it does | What it receives | Where |
|---|---|---|---|
| DeepSeek | the AI model that writes answers and checks some questions | your questions and the conversation sent with them | China |
| Tavily | web search and page reading for the AI, when our data doesn’t hold the answer | the search terms the AI writes from your question, and the addresses of the pages it reads | United States |
| Pydantic (Logfire) | our technical logs | questions, conversations, answers, the steps taken, your IP address, ratings of answers and comments on them | United States |
| Cloudflare | delivers and protects the site; handles our email routing; cookieless visitor statistics | your IP address and requests; emails sent to us | worldwide, including the United States |
| Amazon Web Services (Lightsail) | hosts our servers and database | everything our server handles | United States |
| Resend | sends feedback form messages to us, and our replies | your message, name, email and IP address | United States |
| Google (Gmail) | the inbox where our email arrives | messages and emails you send us | United States |
DeepSeek is a company based in China. If you’d rather your questions weren’t processed there, please don’t use the chat app, or tell us: we’ll consider offering another model if enough people ask.
Tavily’s privacy policy allows it to use search queries to improve its search results.
We don’t share your data with anyone else, except where the law requires it.
How long we keep it
| What | Kept for |
|---|---|
| Technical logs (questions, answers, ratings and comments, IP addresses) | 30 days, then deleted automatically |
| Web server logs (IP addresses, requests) | 14 days, then deleted automatically |
| Feedback and emails you send us | until we delete them from our inbox |
| Conversations in your browser | until you delete them |
Data held by DeepSeek and our other providers is kept according to their own policies.
Your choices and rights
Depending on where you live, you may have the right to ask what data we hold about you, to have it corrected or deleted, or to object to how it’s used. Email [email protected]. Because you don’t have an account, it helps to tell us roughly when you used ClinLit AI and from which network, so we can find the right log entries; most of them are deleted automatically within 30 days anyway. You can also complain to your local data protection authority.
Our reasons for handling your data are to provide the service you ask for, and our legitimate interest in running, securing and improving it.
Children
ClinLit AI is a research tool for professionals and isn’t intended for anyone under 16.
Changes to this policy
If we change how we handle your data, we’ll update this page and the date at the top.