Privacy Policy

The Tick App application (the “App”) has been developed for use by participants in a research study titled “The Tick App.” The study is a collaboration between researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Columbia University, Michigan State University, and the University of Illinois.

The Tick App is intended to support research on exposure to ticks and tick-borne diseases. The App is informational only and does not provide clinical assessments, medical advice, or diagnoses. Please contact your doctor or another qualified healthcare provider if you have medical concerns.

We are committed to protecting App users’ privacy. This page informs you of our policies regarding the collection, use, storage, retention, deletion, and disclosure of information collected through the App.

Information We Collect

Through the App, we collect information related to tick exposure, outdoor activities, protective behaviors, and tick encounters. This may include information provided through an enrollment survey, profile updates, daily activity logs, tick encounter reports, and optional tick photo submissions.

The App may collect date, time, weather information, and location information associated with App submissions. If location services are enabled, the App may collect GPS location information as frequently as every 15 minutes and as precisely as approximately 10 feet from your actual location. You may turn off GPS tracking through your phone settings.

The App may also collect information about whether you or a household member encountered a tick, what activities you did that day, whether a tick was found on you or a pet, where the tick was found, where you may have picked up the tick, and information or images submitted to help identify the tick.

When you create an account, you are assigned a unique participant identifier. This identifier allows the study team to link information collected through the App with other study data over time. Profile information and survey responses are stored separately. Personal information that could identify you is separated from your survey responses and linked by a code accessible only to authorized research personnel.

How We Use Your Information

Information collected through the App is used for research purposes to better understand human exposure to ticks and diseases transmitted by ticks. The information helps researchers study how daily activities, outdoor behavior, protective measures, tick encounters, and location patterns relate to tick-borne disease risk.

Information submitted through the App is transferred to secure servers maintained by the University of Wisconsin-Madison College of Engineering. Data temporarily stored on your device are deleted after transmission to the secure cloud-based servers. Your unique participant identifier may remain associated with your study data so that the study team can link information over time.

The informed consent form for the study provides additional details about how your information is used, stored, and protected for research purposes.

Data Storage and Security

Study data are stored electronically on secure, limited-access servers. The study team uses regulatory-compliant software and systems intended to protect privacy and data security. Access to study data is limited to authorized research personnel and research support offices.

Personal identifying information is stored separately from survey responses and other study data when possible. Location and geographic information may identify you, so access to true location data is restricted. In final study datasets, geographic coordinates may be intentionally obscured, with true coordinates maintained separately.

Data may be shared among study team members through secure data-sharing platforms. Data are removed from those sharing platforms after transfer is completed.

Data Retention and Deletion

Data temporarily stored on your device are deleted after transmission to the secure study servers.

Study data are retained on secure servers for the duration of the study and for three years after the completion of the study. Personally identifiable information will be destroyed at the end of the study period or earlier when it is no longer required for study administration, unless longer retention is required by law, institutional policy, or research oversight requirements.

De-identified study data may be retained securely for future research use. De-identified data are labeled or stored in a way that is not intended to identify individual participants.

You may stop using the App at any time. You may also request deletion of information that can still be linked to you by contacting the study team using the contact information below. If your data have already been de-identified and the study team can no longer determine which records are yours, it may not be possible to remove your individual responses from the research dataset.

Uninstalling the App from your device will remove the App from your phone, but it will not automatically delete information that has already been submitted to the study servers. To request deletion of submitted information that can still be linked to you, please contact the study team.

Disclosure of Your Information

The study informed consent form describes the conditions under which study information is protected from disclosure and when it may need to be disclosed.

Members of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Columbia University, Michigan State University, University of Illinois research teams, and research support offices may access study information as needed for research and study administration.

De-identified data on the number of tick encounters, including tick species, aggregated at the zip code level may be shared with state and county health departments or other organizations upon request to help inform public health decisions. Tick images may be shared anonymously for tick identification or educational purposes.

A description of this study is available on ClinicalTrials.gov.

Changes to This Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. You are advised to review this page periodically for any changes. We will notify users of any changes by posting the new Privacy Policy on this page. These changes are effective immediately after they are posted.

If you have questions or suggestions about this Privacy Policy, or if you would like to request deletion of information that can still be linked to you, please contact the study team:

Midwest region: Dr. Susan Paskewitz, [email protected], 608-262-1696

Northeast region and other states: Dr. Maria Diuk-Wasser, [email protected], 212-854-3355

Terms of Use

The Tick App has been developed for use by adults who are participating in a research study on tick exposure and tick-borne disease risk. By using the App, users agree to use it only for study-related purposes, including completing study surveys, submitting daily activity logs, reporting tick encounters, and accessing educational information.

Users agree not to share their login, password, participant identifier, or other access information with other parties.

The Tick App is informational only. It does not provide clinical assessments, medical advice, or diagnoses. Users should contact a doctor or another qualified healthcare provider with any medical concerns.