Data Retention & Deletion Policy

1. How to start deletion

Sign in and go to Settings → Privacy & data → Delete account. You will be asked to type a confirmation phrase and may optionally tell us why. Submitting the form does not immediately delete anything — it sends a verification email first.

If you cannot sign in but need your data deleted, contact us through our Contact & Feedback form using the email address on your account and we will help.

2. Verifying it's you

We email a single-use verification link to the address on your account. Clicking it confirms you control that inbox and starts the deletion schedule. The link expires after a short time for security; you can request a new one. Until you click it, nothing is scheduled and your account continues to work normally.

3. The 14-day recovery window

Once you verify, your account is scheduled for permanent deletion 14 days later, and we email you the exact date along with a recovery link. During those 14 days:

• Normal app access is paused — you are directed to a recovery screen instead of the app.
• You can restore your account at any time, either from that screen while signed in or from the recovery link we emailed you. Restoring cancels the deletion and reactivates your account.
• Nothing owned by your account is deleted until the window ends.

As your account is deactivated, automated emails such as deadline reminders and match updates wind down. If you recover the account, those resume according to your notification settings. After the 14-day window, deletion is permanent and cannot be undone.

4. What is permanently deleted

When the window ends, your authentication record is removed and the personal records you own are permanently deleted. This includes:

• Your profile and all academic, clinical, research, interest, and location details.
• Your Prometheus AI conversations and messages (including attached images) and your usage counters.
• Your saved opportunities and application-tracker records, statuses, notes, deadlines, and per-opportunity reminders.
• Your logged clinical/volunteer hours.
• Your outreach/contact-tracker records.
• Your private (manual) opportunities and deadlines.
• Your notification preferences and queued reminders, match digests, and delivery records.
• Any waitlist entry tied to your email.

Public opportunities in the shared directory are not personal to you and are not affected by your deletion.

5. What is anonymized or retained

A small number of operational records are kept for security, support, and record-keeping. We remove personal identifiers from them:

• Support messages. The message content you sent us is retained as a support record, but your account link and email address are removed/replaced so it no longer identifies you.
• Email-delivery log. Records that an email was sent (type and status) are kept, with the recipient address replaced so it no longer identifies you.
• Deletion audit record. A non-identifying record that a deletion occurred is kept, with your identifiers removed. It exists so we can show deletions are handled correctly.

6. Backups & service providers

After deletion, residual copies of data may remain in routine, encrypted backups for a limited period until those backups are cycled and overwritten. Deleted data is not restored from backups except as part of disaster recovery.

The service providers that operate PrometheanMed (see the Sharing & service providers section of the Privacy Policy) process data on our behalf, and deletions propagate through them subject to their own backup and log cycles.

7. Requests involving minors

A parent or guardian can request deletion of a minor’s account through our Contact & Feedback form. We handle these through the same verified deletion and recovery process, and may take additional care to confirm the request. See the Children & minors section of the Privacy Policy.

8. Getting help

If a deletion or recovery does not work as expected, or you have a question about your data, reach the PrometheanMed team through our Contact & Feedback form.