Consumer Health Data Privacy Policy

Effective and last updated: August 23, 2026

This policy describes how Sahara, a service offered under the Synodha brand ("Synodha," "we," "us," or "our"), handles consumer health data. It applies to Sahara's website and connected patient-portal service. Questions and privacy requests may be sent to support@synodha.com.

1. Sahara's role

Sahara is an independent consumer application. It is not a health care provider, health plan, or service offered on behalf of a health system. When an individual directs a health system to send information to an independent app, HIPAA may no longer protect that copy after the app receives it. Other consumer-protection, privacy, and health-data laws may still apply, along with this policy.

2. Consumer health data we collect or process

Depending on the record and feature you use, Sahara processes:

• Patient and authorization information: patient name, date of birth, gender, health-system name, patient identifier, and the temporary OAuth access token issued after patient-portal authorization.
• Clinical record information: medications and instructions, allergies and reactions, laboratory results, vital signs, conditions, immunizations, and recent visits.
• Service and consent information: a keyed pseudonymous patient identifier, remaining complimentary credits, the version and time of the most recent translation consent, selected language, and optional feedback, payment interest, email, or note you choose to submit.
• Technical information: information necessarily processed to deliver and secure a web request, such as IP address, request time, URL, browser information, and security or error events. Sahara does not use advertising trackers or third-party analytics on pages displaying health information.

3. Sources of the data

• The health system and patient portal you authorize through SMART on FHIR.
• You, when you select a language or voluntarily submit feedback or an email.
• Your browser, device, and network when you use the service.

4. Why we collect and use the data

• Authenticate the connection you requested and display the source record.
• Organize and translate the chart information you specifically request, after presenting a just-in-time disclosure and obtaining your affirmative permission.
• Show general, source-attributed education about the standardized medical codes in your record (for example, a MedlinePlus article about a lab test or medication), matched by code — not by your specific values, results, or doses.
• Provide complimentary credits, prevent duplicate grants, and document consent.
• Respond to support, privacy, security, and optional feedback requests.
• Protect Sahara, investigate errors or abuse, and comply with law.

We do not use consumer health data for advertising, profiling, data brokerage, employment, credit, insurance eligibility, or unrelated AI model training.

5. Data disclosed to processors and other parties

• Anthropic: the structured chart information listed in Section 2, together with the selected output language, is sent to Anthropic's Claude API over an encrypted connection solely to generate the requested translation. Sahara excludes the patient's name, birth date, gender, patient identifier, and patient-portal access token from the model request.
• MedlinePlus Connect (U.S. National Library of Medicine): to display general education, Sahara sends only a standardized medical code (such as a LOINC, RxNorm, or diagnosis code) and a language. It sends no patient name, birth date, gender, identifier, result value, or access token. Returned articles are attributed to MedlinePlus.gov, and are cached by code (not linked to any patient).
• Cloud hosting and infrastructure providers: process encrypted application traffic, short-lived sessions, pseudonymous service records, and technical data so Sahara can operate securely.
• Health systems and patient portals: receive the OAuth, record-access, disconnect, and revocation requests necessary to provide the connection you requested.
• Legal or safety disclosures: information may be disclosed when required by valid law, or when reasonably necessary to protect users, the service, or others from fraud, abuse, or serious security threats.

We do not sell consumer health data. We do not disclose it to advertisers or data brokers. If this practice changes, we will first provide any notice, consent, or valid authorization required by law.

6. Anthropic retention notice

Sahara does not persist the clinical input or generated translation in its own database or files. Anthropic's standard commercial API policy generally provides for deletion of API inputs and outputs within 30 days, subject to its policy exceptions and any different contractual retention setting applicable to Synodha's account. Synodha is separately verifying whether zero-data-retention terms apply. Until that is confirmed, you should assume the standard retention period may apply.

7. What Sahara stores and for how long

• Source records and translations: held in application memory only while the page or request is processed and not written by Sahara to a database, file, or application log.
• Encrypted session: contains the temporary health-system access token and patient connection information. It is deleted when you disconnect or when the token and session expire.
• Pseudonymous usage and consent record: retained while needed to administer complimentary credits, prevent abuse, and document the latest consent, or until you use the in-app deletion control or make a verified deletion request.
• Optional feedback: retained for up to 24 months. An email submitted for product updates may be retained until you withdraw the request or ask us to delete it.
• Infrastructure security and request records: retained according to the hosting provider's security and operational settings, then deleted or de-identified.

8. Your choices and rights

Subject to applicable law, you may:

• Confirm whether Sahara is processing your consumer health data.
• Request access to or deletion of data Sahara retains about you.
• Withdraw permission for future collection or disclosure by not requesting another translation, disconnecting Sahara, or revoking it in your patient portal.
• Receive a copy of data you provided, where required and technically feasible.
• Appeal a refusal of a privacy request.

While connected, the dashboard provides a control to delete the session, pseudonymous credit and consent record, and feedback associated with that connected patient. You may also email support@synodha.com. Use the subject "Privacy request" or "Privacy appeal." We may need to verify the request without collecting unnecessary identity information. We will not unlawfully discriminate against you for exercising a privacy right.

9. Security

Sahara uses HTTPS encryption in transit, application-level encryption for short-lived server sessions, read-only FHIR access, restrictive browser security headers, pseudonymous keyed identifiers, access controls, and data minimization. No security measure can guarantee absolute protection.

10. Breach notification

We maintain a process to investigate suspected unauthorized acquisition of consumer health data. When notification is legally required, we will notify affected individuals, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, other regulators, and the media as applicable, in the form and within the time required by the FTC Health Breach Notification Rule or other applicable law.

11. International processing

Synodha and its service providers may process information in the United States and other countries where they operate. Those countries may have privacy laws different from those where you live. We use contractual, technical, and organizational protections appropriate to the service and applicable law.

12. Children

Sahara is intended only for users aged 18 or older. It is not directed to children, and a child should not connect or operate the service. An authorized adult proxy may view a minor's record only through access lawfully granted by the health system.

13. Changes to this policy

We will identify changes by updating the effective date. If a change materially expands how we collect, use, or disclose consumer health data, we will provide additional notice and obtain consent when required before applying the new practice.

14. Contact

Synodha Support: support@synodha.com.