Legal & privacy

Last updated 2026-08-19.

1. Medical & research disclaimer

This site is not medical advice, not a diagnosis, and not a treatment recommendation. Every hypothesis presented is candidate status — a research direction an AI-assisted research process judged worth a real scientist testing, not a validated finding. Nothing on this site should inform a treatment decision for any person without a qualified clinician. Interactive models (the 3D cell view, the skin-spread simulation, the population console) are schematic and illustrative — their numbers are relative units for exploring documented mechanisms, not measurements, predictions, or clinical outputs. If you are experiencing symptoms of vitiligo or any other condition, please consult a qualified healthcare provider.

2. The AI research council — a note on names

The 20 "scientist" personas and the devil's-advocate reviewer presented on the lab page are fictional, AI-generated personas, not real people. Their names, specialties, and viewpoints were invented to structure a multi-perspective research review process — a working method, not a claim that any named individual reviewed, endorsed, or contributed to this research. Any resemblance between a persona's name and an actual person, living or dead, is entirely coincidental and not intended to refer to, describe, or characterize any real individual. If you share a name with one of these personas and have a concern, contact us at vitiligo.research.team@gmail.com and we'll address it promptly.

3. Who runs this site

This is an independent, non-commercial research project. It is not affiliated with any medical institution, pharmaceutical company, or advocacy organization, and does not accept sponsorship or advertising. Questions or requests relating to this page can be sent to vitiligo.research.team@gmail.com.

4. What data this site collects

Analytics

This site uses two analytics services, together:

Vercel Web Analytics understands aggregate traffic (which pages are visited, how often, and general referrer/location/device information at a non-identifying level). This service is specifically designed not to use cookies and not to store any persistent identifier tied to you across visits or sites — it counts visits, not visitors.

Google Analytics (GA4) is also used, to understand traffic patterns and how visitors move between pages. Unlike Vercel Web Analytics, GA4 sets cookies (see §5) and assigns a pseudonymous client identifier so it can distinguish repeat visits, and Google processes this data under its own privacy policy (policies.google.com/privacy). We do not use GA4 to build individually-identified profiles, and do not use advertising pixels or cross-site ad-targeting tools. You can opt out of Google Analytics tracking across all sites using Google's browser opt-out add-on, or by blocking third-party cookies/scripts in your browser.

Accounts, forms, and submissions

As of this writing, this site has no user accounts, no login, no comment system, and no forms that collect personal information. If that changes in the future, this page — and the cookie notice below — will be updated to describe exactly what's collected and why before any such feature goes live, not after.

Server logs

Like virtually all web hosting, our infrastructure provider (Vercel) processes standard connection information (IP address, timestamp, requested page) transiently to serve pages and for basic security/abuse protection. This is not accessed, exported, or used by us for any purpose beyond that.

5. Cookies

Google Analytics sets cookies (typically named _ga and _ga_<container-id>) to distinguish repeat visits; see §4 above for what that's used for and how to opt out. Vercel Web Analytics does not set cookies — it's specifically designed not to. This site sets no advertising or cross-site tracking cookies of its own.

Separately, the one-time "you've seen this notice" preference (so the banner at the bottom of the page doesn't reappear on every visit) is stored locally in your browser (localStorage), not as a cookie, is never transmitted anywhere, and contains no personal information.

If a future feature (such as visitor accounts) requires additional cookies, this section and the notice will be updated to describe them before that feature ships — not silently.

6. Your rights (EU/UK GDPR, California CCPA/CPRA, and similar)

This site does not itself collect or store anything tied to your identity — no accounts, no forms, no server-side profile. Google Analytics does assign your browser a pseudonymous client identifier via cookie (§4–5); if you'd rather not be included, use the opt-out link in §4, or a browser/extension that blocks Google Analytics. Beyond that, there is generally nothing tied to you individually held by us to access, correct, or delete. If you believe that's incorrect, or have any privacy question, contact vitiligo.research.team@gmail.com and we'll respond and correct anything necessary.

7. Terms of use

• Content is provided "as is," for informational and research purposes, without warranty of any kind, including accuracy or fitness for a particular purpose.
• The site's original written content and the specific AI-council research process are the author's own work; underlying scientific findings referenced (via PMID citations) are the work of their original authors and are cited, not claimed.
• Interactive simulations are illustrative teaching tools, explicitly not calibrated biological models — see each page's own disclaimer for specifics.
• We are not liable for any decision made based on this site's content. Use of this site is at your own risk.
• This site may link to external sources (journal articles, clinical trial registries); we don't control and aren't responsible for external sites' content or practices.
• These terms may be updated as the site evolves; material changes will be reflected in the "last updated" date above.

8. Children's privacy

This site is not directed at children and does not knowingly collect any information from children.