Privacy Policy

Effective Date: March 12, 2026

Welcome to CAR-Tools ("we," "our," or "us"). We operate the CAR-Tools clinical platform, including our main website (car-tools.org), our AI engine (chat.car-tools.org), and our biomolecular database (database.car-tools.org) (collectively, the "Service").

Because we operate at the intersection of artificial intelligence and clinical research, we hold data privacy and security to the highest standard. This Privacy Policy transparently explains how we collect, use, process, and protect your personal information when you interface with our Service.

1. Information We Collect

We collect information that identifies, relates to, or could reasonably be linked to you ("Personal Data") in the following ways:

• Information You Provide to Us: When you initiate a transmission through our Contact Page, request platform access, or communicate with us directly, we collect your name, email address, institutional affiliation (if provided), and the contents of your message.
• Automatically Collected Data: When you access the Service, our hosting infrastructure automatically records standard log data. This includes your IP address, browser type, operating system, the referring web page, pages visited, and access timestamps.
• Account Credentials: If you are granted secure access to the CAR-Tools Database or AI Engine, we collect the necessary login credentials and institutional identifiers to authenticate your sessions.

2. Clinical Data & Our Neural Network

CAR-Tools provides predictive affinity modeling and access to an indexed clinical dataset. It is vital to distinguish how we treat your Personal Data versus scientific data:

• No Personal Data in AI Training: We do not use your Personal Data (such as your name, contact email, or account credentials) to train our neural network models.
• Prohibition of Protected Health Information (PHI): The CAR-Tools interface is designed for biomolecular engineering, protein folding simulation, and aggregated clinical outcome analysis. Users are strictly prohibited from inputting, uploading, or querying personally identifiable patient data or Protected Health Information (PHI) into our AI models or database unless a specific, signed Data Processing Agreement (DPA) and Business Associate Agreement (BAA) is actively in place between CAR-Tools and your institution.

3. How We Use Your Information

We utilize the Personal Data we collect for the following legitimate business purposes:

• To provide, maintain, and secure the CAR-Tools infrastructure.
• To respond to your inquiries, partnership requests, and support tickets.
• To authenticate authorized investigators accessing our proprietary database.
• To monitor server health, analyze usage trends, and prevent malicious activity or unauthorized database access.

4. Third-Party Infrastructure & Sub-Processors

To operate our platform securely and efficiently, we rely on trusted third-party service providers. We only share the minimum data necessary for these services to function.

• IONOS: We utilize IONOS for our domain management, server hosting, and core cloud infrastructure. When you visit our Service, IONOS automatically processes basic network traffic data (such as IP addresses and server requests) to ensure network security, load balancing, and uptime.
• Web3Forms: We utilize Web3Forms as an API routing service for our Contact Page. When you submit an inquiry, the data payload (your name, email, and message) is securely transmitted via Web3Forms directly to our internal email inboxes. Web3Forms acts strictly as a data conduit and does not sell or leverage your communication data.

We do not sell, rent, or trade your Personal Data to external third parties or data brokers.

5. Data Security

We implement robust, commercially reasonable security measures to protect your Personal Data and the integrity of our clinical database. All data transmitted between your browser and our servers is encrypted using standard TLS/SSL (HTTPS) protocols. However, no absolute security guarantee can be made for any internet transmission or electronic storage.

6. Cookies and Tracking Technologies

Our Service uses minimal, essential cookies required for the platform to function (such as maintaining a secure login session or remembering your user preferences). We do not currently use invasive third-party tracking pixels or targeted advertising cookies.

7. Your Privacy Rights

Depending on your geographical jurisdiction, you hold specific rights regarding your Personal Data:

• The Right to Access: You may request a copy of the personal data we hold about you.
• The Right to Rectification: You may request that we correct any inaccurate or incomplete data.
• The Right to Erasure ("Right to be Forgotten"): You may request the deletion of your personal data from our servers.
• The Right to Restrict Processing: You may request that we temporarily halt the processing of your data.

To exercise any of these rights, please contact us using the information provided below. We will respond to your request within the timeframe mandated by applicable law.

8. Changes to this Policy

As our AI models and database capabilities evolve, we may update this Privacy Policy. We will notify you of any significant changes by updating the "Effective Date" at the top of this document. We encourage investigators to review this policy periodically.

9. Contact Us

If you have questions regarding this Privacy Policy, our data handling practices, or wish to exercise your privacy rights, please establish a secure communication link with us at:

Email: contact@car-tools.org