HIPAA and your information
Effective date: October 2026. Replaces the “HIPAA Compliance Statement” dated August 3, 2025.
The short answer
The AI Addiction Center is not covered by HIPAA. We are not a covered entity, and we do not handle protected health information in the HIPAA sense. HIPAA does not apply to the information you give us. We do not claim to be HIPAA compliant, HIPAA certified or “HIPAA-inspired”, because none of those would be true or useful.
That is not a reason to worry. It is a reason to know what you are getting: a self-help information site that collects very little, and says exactly what it does with it. The Privacy Policy is the page that governs your information.
What HIPAA is
HIPAA is the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, a US federal law passed in 1996. Its privacy and security rules apply to three kinds of organization:
- Health plans (insurers and similar).
- Healthcare clearinghouses (businesses that process health billing data).
- Healthcare providers that send health information electronically for billing (doctors, therapists, hospitals, pharmacies and similar).
These are called covered entities. HIPAA also covers their business associates, which are companies that handle protected health information for them. Protected health information, or PHI, is health information held by a covered entity or business associate that can be tied to a person.
If you tell your doctor or therapist something, HIPAA limits what they can do with it. You also have specific rights, such as seeing your records and getting a notice of how they use your information.
The US Department of Health and Human Services explains this in detail: HIPAA for individuals.
Why HIPAA does not apply to us
We are not a covered entity or a business associate, because we:
- do not provide medical or mental health treatment,
- do not bill insurers or health plans,
- are not a health plan or a clearinghouse,
- do not keep medical records or treatment records,
- do not handle health information on behalf of a healthcare provider.
We publish information, a free self-screening quiz, and self-help guides. Our assessment is not a diagnosis. See the Medical Disclaimer and the methodology. We offer workplace workshops, and our page on finding a counselor is for readers and for counselors who want to be listed. We do not provide counseling or therapy. None of this changes the above.
What that means for you
- HIPAA’s rights do not apply to us. There is no HIPAA notice of privacy practices and no HIPAA right to a record. We give you similar practical choices anyway (unsubscribe, ask for a copy, ask for deletion) in the Privacy Policy.
- What you share with us is not “protected health information” in the HIPAA sense. That does not mean it is unregulated. Other laws can apply, for example consumer protection law, state privacy and health-data laws, and, for visitors in Europe and the UK, data protection law.
- The protections you would expect in a doctor’s office are not automatic here. Do not tell us anything you would only tell a clinician.
What we collect, in short
When you take an assessment, we keep your email address, your total score, your result band, the date, and a record of what you agreed to. We do not keep your answers to individual questions, your IP address, your name, or any medical history. The full list is in the Privacy Policy.
We do not collect diagnoses or treatment information, medication, medical records, or insurance information. Please do not send them to us.
What we cannot promise
We cannot promise your information will always stay confidential. We say this plainly because the topic is personal.
- Your result comes by email. Email is not a private channel. It can be read by anyone who has access to your inbox or your device, forwarded by mistake, or read by an employer or school if you use a work or school account.
- We use other companies to host the site, send email and sell guides. They hold copies under their own rules. The Privacy Policy lists them.
- We may have to disclose information if the law requires it, for example in response to a valid court order. We keep little, which limits what there is to disclose.
- No system is perfectly secure. Our site uses HTTPS, and we store as little as we can. We do not make claims about encryption standards, audits or certifications that we cannot show.
Things you can do
- Use an email address only you can read. Avoid a work, school or shared family account.
- The subject line of our result email says only “Your results are in”. The result itself is inside. Check the sender before you open it, and delete the email when you are done.
- If you share a phone or computer, log out of your email, or use a private browsing window.
- If you do not want further email, unsubscribe from the first email you receive. One click stops the follow-ups. After you unsubscribe we delete your score and result band within 30 days and keep only your email address and the date, so we never email you again.
- Ask us to delete your data at any time: info@theaiaddictioncenter.com.
If you are a clinician or other professional
If you are a healthcare provider and plan to use our materials with patients, your own HIPAA duties remain yours. Please do not send us patient information. We are not set up to receive it. We do not sign business associate agreements, because we do not handle protected health information on anyone’s behalf.
If something goes wrong
If we learn that a security incident has exposed your personal data, we will notify the people and authorities the law requires, without undue delay.
More about HIPAA
Contact
- The AI Addiction Center
- 175 Commerce Dr, Hauppauge, NY 11788
- Phone: +1 (914) 893-2821
- Email: info@theaiaddictioncenter.com
If you are in crisis, call or text 988, text HOME to 741741, or call SAMHSA at 1-800-662-4357.