Privacy Policy

NurseKin is a professional networking, education, mentorship, and community platform owned and operated by Nurse Lada, LLC.

We respect your privacy. This policy explains what information we collect, how we use it, and the choices you have.

Depending on how you use NurseKin, we may collect:

• Account information: Name, email address, account identifiers, authentication status, and related account information.
• Profile information: Credentials, role, specialty, education, professional history, biography, photograph, interests, location, social links, and other information you choose to provide.
• Verification information: License numbers, NPI numbers, school information, school email addresses, acceptance or enrollment documentation, employment information, identity-related information, and records of verification decisions.
• User content: Posts, comments, reactions, reports, saved content, community participation, stories, private messages you send and receive (with their dates and whether you have read them), message reports, Kin Connections and connection requests, your connections-list visibility setting, blocking records, the city you choose to share for Same city, and other information you submit through the platform.
• Communications: Messages and requests sent to NurseKin, including support, verification, partnership, reporting, and account-related communications.
• Device and usage information: IP address, browser type, device type, operating system, referring pages, pages visited, timestamps, interaction data, error logs, security-related information, and short-term records of recent messaging, connection-request, and reporting activity used to apply usage limits.
• Information from public sources: Professional information available through public licensing boards, the NPPES registry, employer websites, educational institutions, and other lawful public sources.
• Information from other users: Reports, moderation requests, invitations, comments, tags, or other information users provide about interactions on NurseKin.

Account authentication (including your password) is processed by our authentication provider. NurseKin does not have access to your password in readable form.

We obtain information directly from users, automatically through use of the platform, from service providers supporting platform operations, from other users, and from lawful public sources such as professional licensing databases and the NPPES registry.

We may use information to:

• Create, authenticate, maintain, and secure accounts
• Review professional or student verification submissions
• Operate profiles, communities, feeds, notifications, private messages, Kin Connections, blocking, Nursing GPS, and other platform features
• Personalize content, communities, employment opportunities, scholarships, and platform recommendations
• Send service-related communications about verification, security, account status, support, safety, and material changes to our Terms of Service or Privacy Policy
• Detect, investigate, prevent, and respond to fraud, impersonation, abuse, security threats, and violations of platform rules
• Moderate content, review reported messages and, when reasonably necessary, relevant conversations, and enforce the Terms of Service and Community Guidelines
• Apply usage limits that help prevent spam, abuse, and misuse of messaging, connection requests, and reporting
• Analyze performance, troubleshoot problems, and improve accessibility, usability, and platform features
• Comply with legal obligations and respond to lawful requests
• Establish, exercise, or defend legal claims
• Protect the rights, safety, security, and integrity of users, NurseKin, Nurse Lada, LLC, and the public

We do not sell your personal information for money.

Verification information such as license numbers, NPI numbers, or nursing-program documentation is used solely for professional verification and platform integrity purposes.

Verification documents submitted directly to NurseKin are not displayed to other members. Some facts used to verify professional credentials - such as licensure status or NPI records - may also be available through official public registries.

Access to verification documents is restricted to authorized personnel who need them for verification, safety, security, support, or legal-compliance purposes.

Employment information is displayed only at the user's discretion through profile privacy controls.

Verification information is retained only as long as reasonably necessary for the stated purpose and applicable legal obligations. NurseKin may retain records of verification decisions even after supporting documents are deleted when reasonably necessary to prevent fraud, document prior account actions, resolve disputes, or comply with law.

NurseKin does not intentionally request unnecessary sensitive information for verification. Before uploading a verification document, members are instructed to remove or cover unnecessary sensitive information, including:

• Social Security numbers
• Dates of birth
• Home or mailing addresses
• Telephone numbers
• Student or employee identification numbers
• Driver's-license, passport, or other government-identification numbers
• Bank, credit-card, tax, salary, tuition, or financial-aid information
• Signatures
• Passwords, authentication codes, or security answers
• Patient information

NurseKin collects and retains only the verification information reasonably necessary for these purposes.

Profile information and content you choose to share may be visible to other NurseKin members according to the feature and visibility settings you use. Other members may copy, capture, or share information they are permitted to view. Visibility settings control how information is displayed through NurseKin but cannot control the actions of people who receive or view that information.

Messages are not displayed to members outside the conversation. The member you message sees what you send, with your name and profile photo, and may copy or share it, as with any information you share. Authorized NurseKin personnel may access relevant messages when reasonably necessary to investigate reports or suspected misconduct, protect members or platform security, enforce our Terms and Community Guidelines, or comply with legal obligations. Such access is restricted to authorized personnel for these purposes. When a participant reports a message, authorized moderators review a stored copy of that message, the report reason, and any accompanying note, and may review relevant conversation context.

Your choice under "Who can view my connections list?" in Settings is either NurseKin members or Hidden from other members, which is the default. You can always view your own connections. Each connection remains visible to the two people involved. It appears to other members only when both people allow it.

"Allow members to find me by city" is off by default. If you turn it on and enter a city, members who have also turned it on and list the same city and state can find you under Same city in My Kin Connections and see your city and state. NurseKin uses only the city you enter and the state on your profile, not GPS, distance, or your precise location. You can turn it off at any time in Settings.

NurseKin does not notify members when you block them, although they may infer this from changes in available features.

NurseKin membership is limited to individuals age 18 and older. If we learn that an account belongs to someone under 18, we will restrict access and take appropriate steps to delete their personal information in accordance with applicable law. To report an underage account, contact support@nursekin.com.

NurseKin may use service providers for services such as authentication, database hosting, cloud hosting, email delivery, analytics, security, moderation, customer support, and platform operations.

These providers may process information on NurseKin's behalf as necessary to perform their services and are subject to their own legal obligations, contractual terms, and privacy practices.

Private messages, message reports, and Kin Connections are stored on NurseKin's systems, including its database hosting provider, and messages are not end-to-end encrypted. Like other information NurseKin stores, they can be technically accessed by NurseKin personnel and service providers with administrative access to those systems. Within NurseKin's own tools, opening a conversation is limited to specifically authorized administrators, requires a recorded reason, and is logged with who opened it, when, and why. NurseKin may access or disclose message content for the purposes described in How We Use Information and in the circumstances listed below.

NurseKin may also disclose information:

• At the user's direction or with the user's consent
• To protect the rights, safety, and security of users, NurseKin, Nurse Lada, LLC, or the public
• To investigate fraud, abuse, security incidents, or violations of platform rules
• When required by law, legal process, court order, or a valid governmental request
• To establish, exercise, or defend legal claims
• In connection with a merger, acquisition, financing, reorganization, bankruptcy, sale of assets, or similar business transaction

NurseKin does not sell personal information for money.

NurseKin uses the public NPPES registry maintained by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to validate NPI numbers. NPPES is the official public registry for active NPI records.

NurseKin and its service providers may use cookies, local storage, and similar technologies to keep users signed in, remember preferences, maintain security, understand platform performance, troubleshoot errors, and improve the service.

The specific technologies used may change as the platform evolves. Where required by law, NurseKin will provide applicable notice or choices regarding non-essential technologies.

NurseKin retains information for as long as reasonably necessary to provide the platform, maintain account and verification records, protect platform integrity, prevent fraud, resolve disputes, enforce agreements, comply with legal obligations, and establish or defend legal claims.

Retention periods may vary based on the type of information and the reason it was collected. When information is no longer reasonably needed, NurseKin may delete, de-identify, or securely dispose of it, subject to technical limitations and lawful retention requirements.

Private messages are kept until either participant's account is permanently deleted. Individual messages cannot currently be deleted. Permanent deletion of either participant's account removes the conversation for both members. Kin Connections, connection requests, and blocking records are removed when a connection is removed, a request is declined or cancelled, or a block is lifted, and when either member's account is permanently deleted.

Message reports are kept as safety and moderation records, including after the reporter's or the reported member's account is deleted. A kept report contains the stored copy of the reported message, when it was sent, the report reason, any accompanying note, and its review status. When an account is deleted, its link to the report is replaced with a random reference, and the member's name, email address, and certain profile identifiers, such as phone numbers, NPI and license numbers, and profile links, are removed from the stored text. This is not complete anonymization: the rest of the message, the note, or the surrounding context may still identify a person.

Each time an administrator opens a conversation, NurseKin keeps a record of who opened it, when, why, and which report or conversation it concerned, as a security and accountability record. The record does not keep the messages. If an account is permanently deleted, its name, email address, and certain profile identifiers are removed from the written reasons in these records.

After a report has been reviewed and closed, it becomes eligible for deletion 365 days after it was closed or 730 days after it was submitted, whichever comes first. A report that has not been reviewed is not deleted until it has been reviewed. These are review thresholds, not a guaranteed deletion date: eligible reports are deleted when NurseKin carries out its periodic deletion review, so a report may be kept for some time after it becomes eligible. A report is not deleted while a legal, safety, or other hold applies to an account involved in it.

Information may remain temporarily in backups after deletion. Content shared with others may also remain where another user has independently reposted, quoted, or interacted with it or where retention is required for safety, moderation, or legal purposes.

You can edit available profile information, adjust available profile-visibility settings, choose who can view your connections list, choose whether members can find you by city, decline or remove Kin Connections, block members, delete content where deletion controls are provided, and deactivate your account through Settings.

To permanently delete your account, email support@nursekin.com from the email address on your account; the Contact Support button under Settings, Account Management, opens that email. NurseKin verifies the request, and an administrator schedules the deletion: your account is deactivated, sign-in is blocked, and permanent deletion is scheduled for 30 days later. NurseKin emails you the scheduled date.

To cancel, email support@nursekin.com from your account's email address before the scheduled date. NurseKin then cancels the deletion and returns your account to how it was before your request. If the deletion is not cancelled, it is processed automatically after the 30-day period unless a legal, safety, or other hold applies. NurseKin may retain limited records as required or permitted by law, including message reports as described under Data Retention.

Depending on applicable law, you may also have the right to request access to, correction of, or deletion of personal information NurseKin maintains about you. Some deletion requests may require account deletion because certain information is necessary to maintain and provide an active NurseKin account.

NurseKin may retain information where permitted or required by law, including when reasonably necessary for security, fraud prevention, legal compliance, dispute resolution, enforcement of NurseKin's policies, or protection of other users' rights.

Privacy requests may be sent to support@nursekin.com. When possible, send the request from the email address associated with your NurseKin account.

To protect your information, NurseKin may verify a request through the signed-in account, the account email address, or limited additional information that can reasonably be matched to the account. NurseKin will not request your password or Social Security number to process a privacy request.

If NurseKin declines a request and applicable law provides a right to appeal, NurseKin's response will explain how to submit the appeal.

NurseKin uses reasonable administrative, technical, and organizational safeguards designed to protect personal information against unauthorized access, loss, misuse, alteration, or disclosure.

No method of transmission or storage is completely secure, and NurseKin cannot guarantee absolute security.

Users are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of their account credentials and should contact support@nursekin.com immediately if they suspect unauthorized account access.

NurseKin may update this Privacy Policy to reflect changes in the platform, legal requirements, vendors, or data practices.

The "Last updated" date will show when the policy was most recently revised. When required by law or when a change is material, NurseKin may provide additional notice through the platform or by email.

Questions about this Privacy Policy? Email contact@nursekin.com.