Privacy Policy

Disparity in Dentistry (DnD) is a student organization at the University of Florida working to improve access to dental care, especially for people with disabilities and special health care needs. This policy covers ufdnd.com, including the Dental Access Navigator (DAN) and the Accommodations Generator.

The Dental Access Navigator (DAN) helps you find dental programs in the Gainesville area that may fit your needs. You can chat in your own words or tap quick replies. To find options, it uses general answers such as what kind of care you need, an age range, how you would pay, and whether you're looking for care in the Gainesville area. We ask where you want care, not where you live.

Private information is removed before it leaves your device. Before a message is sent, your browser removes things that could identify you, like names, dates, phone numbers, email addresses, street addresses, ZIP codes, and ID numbers. Our server checks again and removes anything that slipped through. You'll see a note in the chat when something was removed.

Nothing from your chat is saved. Your conversation is held only in your browser tab's memory. Each message is sent to our server to find options and is then discarded. We don't store chat transcripts, we don't create accounts or profiles, and our system does not record the content of messages.

AI help. When it's turned on, DAN may use an AI service to better understand what you type and to write short explanations. Your typed words, with private information already removed, only go to paid business AI services whose terms say they don't use this data to train their models. If we ever use a free AI service, it only receives general categories, like "needs a checkup" or "no insurance," and never anything you typed. The AI can only explain the options our own matching finds. It can't add clinics or decide who qualifies.

The Accommodations Generator builds a one-page sheet for your dentist entirely inside your web browser. Your choices are never sent to DnD or anyone else, and they're erased when you close the page. You decide who gets your sheet.

We keep two kinds of information:

1. Clinic information. Public details about dental programs, such as services, hours, costs, and who they serve.
2. Monthly totals. Simple counts that go up by one, grouped by month. We count each item separately and never record combinations of answers, so a count can't be traced back to a person. Counts are not linked to your device, browser, or internet address.

• To improve DAN and fix gaps, like needs we can't find any clinic for.
• To understand dental access needs in our community.
• To report our impact to UF, partners, and grant funders, using totals only.

When we share totals outside DnD, we combine small numbers or report them over longer periods, so no small group of people can be singled out. Only DnD officers responsible for the tool can see the totals. Because totals don't describe any person, we keep them as long as they're useful for running and reporting on the program.

The totals are for running and improving our program. They are not research on people. If DnD ever does a research study, it will be separate from these tools, completely voluntary, explained up front, and reviewed by the University of Florida's research ethics board (IRB) when required.

Like any website, our hosting provider (Base44) and its service partners may process basic technical information, such as your internet address and browser type, to deliver pages and keep the site secure. We don't use this information to identify visitors, and we don't add advertising trackers to the site. The AI service providers we use may briefly keep requests for security and abuse monitoring under their own policies.

Our tools are made for adults and for parents or guardians looking for care for a child. They are not directed to children under 13, and we don't knowingly collect personal information from children. If you're under 13, please use these tools with a parent or guardian. Because we don't store what is typed, there is no saved information about a child to review or delete, but you're always welcome to contact us with questions.

DnD is not a dentist, doctor, clinic, or health plan, and our tools don't receive medical records. Because of this, the federal health privacy law HIPAA generally doesn't apply to these tools. We still follow its ideas as a guide: we use age ranges instead of exact ages, never ask for locations smaller than "the Gainesville area," and remove names, dates, and ID numbers.

DAN helps you find places that may offer care. It can't diagnose problems, recommend treatment, or decide if you qualify for a program. Each program makes its own decisions. If you have trouble breathing or swallowing, swelling that is spreading, bleeding that won't stop, or a serious face injury, call 911 or go to the nearest emergency room.

Our site uses encrypted connections (HTTPS). Clinic information can only be changed by DnD administrators, and monthly totals can only be viewed by them. Our best protection is collecting as little as possible: we can't lose what we never keep. If a security problem ever affected personal information, we would follow the notice requirements of Florida law.

We work to keep clinic details correct, but programs change. Details marked "Not yet confirmed" haven't been verified by DnD yet. Please call a clinic before you go. If you notice something wrong, email us and we'll fix it.

If we change how our tools handle information, we'll update this page and the date at the top before the change takes effect.

Questions about privacy or our tools? Email disparityindentistry@gmail.com.