Privacy Policy

Effective: September 20, 2026

Scrubin Medical Education LLC (“ScrubIN,” “we,” “us,” or “our”) builds an educational app for surgical trainees. This policy explains what data we collect, how we use it, who can see it, and the choices you have. It applies to the ScrubIN iOS app, the ScrubIN web app, and the getscrubin.com website.

Summary

  • We collect the data needed to run your account and learning experience.
  • We do not sell your data or share it for cross-context behavioral advertising.
  • We do not disclose individual learning data to a school, program, or employer without clear notice and authorization.
  • We do not collect any patient health information (PHI). ScrubIN is not a HIPAA-covered entity.
  • We do not use your data for cross-app advertising or tracking. We do not use Apple’s IDFA.
  • ScrubIN is used in research on surgical education. Taking part in a study is always separate, optional, and consented to on its own.
  • You can delete your account and its server data at any time from inside the app.

Information We Collect

Account information you provide directly:

  • Email address, and the account identifier from Apple or Google if you sign in with them
  • Name (used for your in-app profile; leaderboards use a separate alias)
  • Profile photo link, if your sign-in provider supplies one
  • Training role and level (e.g., medical student year, PGY level, attending, pre-health)
  • Specialty focus (e.g., plastic surgery, orthopedic surgery, general surgery)
  • Medical school and board exam date, if you provide them
  • Institutional affiliation and program code. optional; you can skip these fields
  • Leaderboard alias, if you join a leaderboard

Learning activity generated as you use the app:

  • Questions answered, time on task, correctness, confidence ratings
  • Streak, XP, mastery progression, achievements earned
  • Bookmarked or flagged questions, saved references, and notes
  • Settings and preferences

Search:

  • The text you type into in-app search, how many results it returned, and which result you opened

Search text is stored with your account. We use it to improve search quality and find gaps in our content. Please do not type patient names or any other patient information into the search field.

Feedback you choose to give:

  • Your answers to short optional in-app prompts, such as a star rating after a module, a periodic check-in, a survey, or a question about whether content was accurate and helpful, including any comments you type
  • Content problem reports you submit from a reference, question, or case

Answering any prompt is optional and every prompt can be dismissed. We record when a prompt was dismissed without an answer, so we can tell how often people choose to respond.

Product usage data:

  • Product usage events, such as screens visited and features used, associated with your account identifier

On getscrubin.com:

  • If you join our email list, your email address
  • If you use the contact form, your name, email address, and message
  • Aggregate page-view and site-performance measurements, collected without advertising cookies

How We Use Your Information

  • Run your account and personalize your learning sessions
  • Track mastery progression, streaks, and achievements
  • Show your leaderboard entry if you choose to join a leaderboard
  • Improve search results and identify gaps in our content
  • Understand which features are working and which to improve
  • Investigate and fix problems, including issues you report to us
  • Reply to messages you send us and send updates you signed up for
  • Send account or security communications, such as password resets
  • Protect ScrubIN against abuse and comply with legal obligations

Leaderboards

Leaderboards are optional. If you join one, your entry is visible to other signed-in ScrubIN users and shows your chosen alias, specialty, points, streak, number of correct answers, and the program code you joined, if any. It does not show your name, email address, or your detailed study history. Choose an alias that does not identify you if you prefer to stay anonymous.

You can turn off leaderboard participation in your Profile. To have an existing leaderboard entry removed, email privacy@getscrubin.com or delete your account.

Research

ScrubIN is used in research on surgical education. If you are invited to take part in a research study, you will be told clearly beforehand, you will be asked for your consent separately from this policy and from our Terms, and taking part will always be voluntary. You may withdraw at any time without any effect on your training, evaluation, or standing.

Study data are handled under an approved study protocol and overseen by the sponsoring institution’s Institutional Review Board. Results are reported in aggregate; individual participants are not identified in any report or publication. Where a study’s consent form describes data handling differently from this policy, the consent form governs for that study.

Some of ScrubIN’s founders take part in this research and hold a financial interest in ScrubIN. That interest is disclosed to participants during consent and in any resulting publication.

Service Providers We Use

We rely on the following providers to operate ScrubIN. They process data on our behalf, and their handling of data is governed by their applicable terms, privacy commitments, and our service configuration.

  • Firebase (Google). Authentication, Firestore database, and Cloud Functions. Stores your account and learning data on Google’s infrastructure. On the web app, Google reCAPTCHA helps protect sign-in and data access from automated abuse.
  • Google Analytics (GA4). Product usage metrics. Events are associated with a pseudonymous account identifier and your training role and specialty. We do not send your name, email address, or institution to Google Analytics, we do not enable advertising signals, and we do not place patient information in analytics.
  • Apple and Stripe. If we offer paid features, purchases in the iOS app are processed by Apple and purchases on the web are processed by Stripe. We never see or store your full card details.
  • Resend. Stores the email list you can join on getscrubin.com and delivers contact-form messages to our inbox.
  • Vercel. Hosts getscrubin.com and provides aggregate, cookie-free page-view and performance measurement.

What We Do Not Do

  • We do not sell your personal information, and we do not share it for cross-context behavioral advertising.
  • We do not disclose individual learning data to a school, program, or employer without clear notice and authorization. Joining a program code only adds your leaderboard entry, described above, to that program’s leaderboard.
  • We do not collect patient health information (PHI). ScrubIN contains educational content only; no clinical data flows through the app.
  • We do not run cross-app advertising or behavioral tracking. We do not request or use Apple’s IDFA (Advertising Identifier).
  • We do not use your learning data to train third-party AI models without your explicit consent.

Data Security

Account data is encrypted in transit and at rest on Google Cloud infrastructure. Access is restricted by server-enforced Firestore security rules: your account record can be read and changed only by you, and leaderboard entries are visible to other signed-in users as described above. Passwords are managed by Firebase Authentication and are never stored by us.

The app also keeps a copy of your profile, progress, and recent activity, including recent searches, on your own device so it keeps working when your connection drops. That copy is removed when you delete the app.

No system is perfectly secure. If we ever experience a breach affecting your account, we will notify you as required by law.

Data Retention

We keep your account data for as long as your account is active. If you delete your account, we delete or anonymize your personal information within 30 days, except where retention is required by law (e.g., tax records for paid purchases). Aggregated, non-identifying analytics may be retained indefinitely. Email-list and contact-form data are kept until you unsubscribe or ask us to delete them.

If you have taken part in a research study, a coded copy of the data you contributed to that study is kept for the period the study protocol and the sponsoring institution require — normally at least three years after the study ends — and is then securely destroyed. Study data cannot always be removed from analyses that have already been completed, and this is explained to you during consent.

Your Rights and Choices

From inside the app, you can:

  • View and update your profile information
  • Download a JSON export of the profile and progress data stored on your device (Settings → Data & Privacy → Export My Data)
  • Delete your account and its server data (Settings → Account → Delete Account)
  • Turn leaderboard participation on or off in your Profile
  • Turn reminder notifications on or off (Settings → Notifications)

To request a copy of the data we hold on our servers, or to have a leaderboard entry removed, email us. You can unsubscribe from our email list at any time using the link in any email.

Depending on where you live, you may have additional rights under laws such as the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) or the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), including the right to access, correct, port, or erase your data, and the right to object to certain processing. We will not discriminate against you for exercising these rights. To exercise them, email privacy@getscrubin.com. We may need to verify your identity before acting on a request.

HIPAA

ScrubIN is an educational tool and is not a covered entity or business associate under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). We do not collect, store, or process protected health information (PHI). Do not enter any patient information into the app, including in search, notes, and free-text feedback.

Age Requirement

ScrubIN is intended for users 18 years and older. We do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 18. If you believe someone under 18 has provided us with personal information, please contact privacy@getscrubin.com and we will delete the information.

International Users

ScrubIN is operated from the United States. If you use ScrubIN from outside the United States, your information will be transferred to, stored in, and processed in the United States, where data protection laws may differ from those in your country.

Changes to This Policy

We may update this policy from time to time. If we make material changes, we will notify you via email or in-app notice. The effective date at the top of this page reflects the most recent revision. Continued use of ScrubIN after a change constitutes acceptance of the revised policy.

Contact Us

Scrubin Medical Education LLC is responsible for your information under this policy. For privacy-related questions or to exercise any of your rights, email us at privacy@getscrubin.com. For general support, email hello@getscrubin.com.