Effective date: May 11, 2026 Last updated: May 11, 2026

This Privacy Policy explains how Vanguard Optimization ("we," "us," "our"), a service of Crawford Medical, LLC, collects, uses, and protects information when you use our website at vanguardoptimization.com (the "Service"). We take privacy seriously because the information members share with us is often health-related, and we treat it accordingly.

If you have questions about anything in this policy, contact us at [email protected].

What We Collect

Account information. When you create an account or subscribe, we collect your email address, your subscription tier (Free, Optimized, or Vanguard), and basic account metadata generated by our membership platform.

Payment information. Payments are processed by Stripe. We do not see or store your full credit card number. Stripe sends us a customer reference, the subscription tier you purchased, and the status of your subscription. Your payment details are governed by Stripe's privacy practices, available at stripe.com/privacy.

Supplement stack data (Optimized and Vanguard members). Members on paid tiers can record supplements, peptides, hormones, and medications in our stack tracker. This data includes substance name, dose, frequency, reasons for use, and any notes you write. It is stored in our PostgreSQL database (hosted on Railway), associated with a hashed reference to your member account.

AI assistant conversations. When you use the Vanguard AI educational assistant, your messages and the assistant's responses are sent to Anthropic's Claude API for processing. We do not permanently store the full transcripts of AI conversations on our servers; conversations exist transiently to power the assistant within your browser session and are subject to Anthropic's data handling policies, available at anthropic.com/privacy.

Email engagement. When we send you newsletters or transactional emails, our email infrastructure (Ghost's built-in newsletter system, and Resend for certain literature alerts) may record whether you opened the email or clicked links, so we can understand which content resonates and improve future sends.

Technical data. Like most websites, our servers log basic technical information when you visit — IP address, browser type, pages viewed, referring URL, and timestamp. This is used for security, debugging, and aggregate usage analysis.

What We Do With It

We use the information we collect to:

  • Provide the Service (deliver content, run the AI assistant, store your supplement stack, send literature alerts you subscribed to)
  • Process payments through Stripe
  • Communicate with you about your account, subscription, or service-related issues
  • Send the educational newsletters and content updates you've subscribed to
  • Understand which content is useful and improve our editorial decisions
  • Detect and prevent abuse, fraud, or security incidents
  • Comply with legal obligations

We do not sell your personal information. We do not share your supplement stack data, your AI assistant conversations, or your account information with advertisers, data brokers, or third parties for marketing purposes.

Third Parties Who Process Data on Our Behalf

To run the Service, we rely on a small set of trusted service providers:

  • Ghost (Pro hosted) — content platform and member database
  • Stripe — payment processing
  • Anthropic — powers the Vanguard AI educational assistant
  • Railway — hosts our application infrastructure and PostgreSQL database
  • Resend — sends certain literature alert emails
  • Cloudflare — DNS and content delivery

Each of these providers has access only to the data necessary to perform their function and is bound by their own privacy commitments and our service agreements with them.

Health Data Sensitivity

We recognize that supplement stack entries, AI assistant conversations, and engagement with health-related content may reveal information about your personal health. We are not a covered entity under HIPAA, and Vanguard Optimization is not a medical service, telehealth provider, or substitute for clinical care. The data you provide is educational metadata about your personal optimization choices, not protected health information in the legal sense — but we treat it with the same care.

We take the following steps:

  • Supplement stack records are accessible only by you (via your authenticated account) and by Vanguard administrators with operational need
  • AI assistant conversations are not retained in our database after the session ends
  • We do not link supplement data to advertising identifiers or third-party tracking
  • We do not sell, license, or share any health-adjacent data with external parties

Data Retention

We retain your account information for as long as your account is active. If you cancel your subscription, we retain your account record for up to 24 months so you can rejoin without re-entering data, after which it may be deleted or anonymized. Payment records are retained as required by tax and accounting law (typically 7 years).

Supplement stack entries are retained for as long as your account remains active or until you delete them yourself through the dashboard. You can request full deletion of your supplement data at any time by emailing us.

AI assistant conversation data is retained only within the active browser session and is not stored on our servers after the session ends. Anthropic's retention practices for API-processed data are governed by their own policies.

Your Rights

You have the right to:

  • Access the information we hold about you
  • Correct inaccurate information
  • Delete your account and associated data
  • Export your supplement stack data in a portable format
  • Opt out of marketing emails at any time (transactional emails about your account will still be sent)
  • Object to specific uses of your data

To exercise any of these rights, email us at [email protected]. We will respond within 30 days.

Depending on where you live, you may have additional rights under specific laws (such as the EU General Data Protection Regulation, the California Consumer Privacy Act, or similar regimes). We honor those rights to the extent they apply.

Cookies and Similar Technologies

We use a minimal set of cookies necessary for the Service to function — primarily to keep you signed in and to remember preferences. We do not use third-party advertising cookies or cross-site tracking. Some essential third parties (Stripe, Cloudflare) set their own cookies when their services are used.

Children

The Service is not intended for anyone under 18, and we do not knowingly collect information from minors. If you believe a minor has created an account, contact us and we will delete the account.

Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. Material changes will be communicated by email to members and noted with an updated "Last updated" date at the top of this page. Continued use of the Service after a change indicates acceptance of the updated policy.

Contact

Questions, requests, or complaints about this policy can be sent to:

Vanguard Optimization (a service of Crawford Medical, LLC) Kristopher Crawford, MD [email protected] +1 (843) 601-2603