Last updated: 20 October 2026
This notice explains what personal information VagusNerve.com collects, why, and what you can do about it. The short version:
- We don’t show adverts, use third-party trackers or sell personal information.
- We keep simple statistics about how the site is used. You can opt out with one click.
- If you comment or email us, we use what you send to reply and to run the site.
- If you ask for our free eBook, we use your email address to send it to you and, if you agree, to send occasional updates. You can unsubscribe at any time.
- Our practitioner directory lists business details that practices publish on their own websites. Listings are free, and practitioners can claim, correct or remove theirs at any time.
Who we are
VagusNerve.com (“we”, “us”, “our”) is responsible for the personal information described in this notice. You can contact us about anything in it at [email protected].
Website statistics
When you visit, a small script that we run ourselves records:
- the page you viewed and, if you came from another page on this site, which one;
- any campaign tags in the web address you arrived on (for example “utm_source”);
- how long you stayed on the page;
- the address of any link you follow, or form you submit, to another website; and
- your country, which our hosting provider works out from your IP address. We don’t store your IP address.
To count visits and visitors, the script sets these cookies, which belong to this site only:
| Cookie | What it does | How long it lasts |
|---|---|---|
| _hx3v | A random ID so we can count returning visitors | 400 days |
| _hx3s | A random ID that groups the pages you view in one visit | 30 minutes after your last page view |
| _hx3g | Remembers whether statistics are on or off in your browser | Up to 1 year |
If you visit from the European Union, no cookies are set and we record page views only, with no visitor or visit IDs. If your browser sends a Global Privacy Control signal, the script does nothing at all.
We use these statistics only to understand which content is useful and to improve the site. They are stored in our account with our hosting provider, Cloudflare, for three months. They are not used for advertising, not combined with information from other companies, and not sold. Our legal basis is our legitimate interest in understanding how the site is used. UK law allows statistics cookies like these without asking first, provided we tell you about them and make it easy to object.
We collect statistics about how this website is used - which pages are visited, how visitors arrive, and which links they follow - so that we can improve the site. We collect this ourselves. It is not sold, not shared with advertisers, and not used to build a profile of you.
If you would rather we did not, use the button below. It takes effect immediately, costs nothing, and you can change your mind at any time.
Hosting and security
The site is delivered by Cloudflare, which processes your IP address and basic technical information, such as your browser type, to send you pages and to protect the site from attacks and abuse. Cloudflare also hides the email addresses on our pages from spam robots. This uses a small script but sets no cookies.
Links to other websites
Our pages link to other websites, including “share” links for X and Facebook. These are ordinary links, so nothing is sent to those sites unless you click one. Other websites have their own privacy policies.
Comments
To comment on an article, you give us your name, your email address and your comment. We publish your name and comment once we have approved them. We never publish your email address and only use it if we need to contact you about your comment. We also use your IP address to limit repeated submissions, and the comment form uses Cloudflare Turnstile to check that you are not a spam robot.
Our legal basis is our legitimate interest in running a moderated discussion and keeping out spam. We keep comments while they are published. Comments we decide not to publish are kept on our moderation system so that we can recognise repeat spam. You can ask us to delete your comment and details at any time.
Emailing us
If you email us, we use your email address and what you write to reply and to deal with your request. Our email is handled by Forward Email. We keep correspondence for as long as we need it to deal with your request and any follow-up.
Our free eBook and mailing list
If you ask for our free eBook, you give us your email address and, if you choose, your first name. We use them to:
- send you an email asking you to confirm your address, so that nobody can sign you up without your knowledge;
- send you your personal download link once you have confirmed; and
- send you occasional updates from VagusNerve.com, which you agree to when you tick the box on the form.
We also record when you signed up and confirmed, which list you joined and how many times your download link is used. This lets us keep your link working for you and stop it being shared widely. Your link only works while you are subscribed. To limit repeated sign-up attempts, we keep a scrambled version of your IP address for up to an hour.
Our mailing list is stored on our own website, using a plugin called Mailster, and is not handed to a mailing-list company. Our emails are sent through Forward Email. Emails we send to the list may record whether they are opened and which links are clicked, so that we can see which topics readers find useful. When you confirm your address, our confirmation page sets a cookie called vneb_dl for one hour, so that it can show you a download button straight away.
Our legal basis is your consent. You can withdraw it at any time with the unsubscribe link in any of our emails, or by emailing [email protected]. We keep your details while you are subscribed. If you unsubscribe, we keep a record that you did, so that we don’t email you again by mistake. You can ask us to delete your details completely at any time.
If you are listed in our practitioner directory
Our directory helps people find practitioners who work with the vagus nerve, nervous-system regulation and sleep. This section explains how we handle the information in each listing.
Where the information comes from
Unless you sent it to us yourself, the information in your listing comes from your practice’s own public website. We don’t take information from other directories or booking platforms.
What we hold
- Published on your listing: your professional name, practice name, credentials, practice address, business phone number, website, the approaches your website says you offer, whether you offer online sessions, whether your website says you help with sleep or insomnia, a one-sentence description we write ourselves, and the date we last checked the details. Your listing also includes an approximate map location worked out from your ZIP code or postcode.
- Kept privately: the address of the web page we took the details from and the date we took them. If you claim your listing, the email address you verified with and the date, so that we know who may edit it. If you contact us, we also keep your messages and the email address you use.
We only publish a street address if your website gives it as your practice address, and we don’t publish email addresses unless you ask us to.
Why we use it, and our legal basis
We use this information to run a free public directory and to keep it accurate. Our legal basis is legitimate interests: our interest in running the directory, and the public’s interest in finding practitioners. We think this is fair because we use only business details that you already publish to attract clients, the listing is free, and you can change or remove it at any time. We may contact you about your listing, for example to tell you it exists or to check the details. We will not send you marketing without your permission.
Who can see it
Listings are public. The service providers listed below process the information so that we can run the site. We don’t sell directory information or share it with other organisations for their own use.
How long we keep it
We keep a listing while your practice is active and offers what we list. We recheck listings at least once a year and remove any that are out of date. If we remove your listing because you asked us to, we delete it and keep only your website address on a do-not-list record, so that it isn’t added again.
Claiming your listing
Every listing has a “Claim, correct or remove it” button. To prove that you speak for the practice, we email a one-time code to an address you give us, but only if that address uses your practice’s own website domain or is published on your practice’s website. To check the second case we fetch your website at that moment and look for the address; we don’t keep the page. We don’t tell anyone whether an address matched.
Until you enter the code, we keep only a record of the request (the listing, a scrambled version of the code, the address you entered and your IP address) for 15 minutes, then delete it. We limit how many codes can be requested for each listing and from each IP address, and the form uses Cloudflare Turnstile to keep robots out. Nothing changes without the code.
Once you have entered the code, your listing is marked “Claimed”, our automated updates no longer change it, and you can edit the contact details, address, website, one-sentence summary, approaches, online-sessions and sleep information yourself for the next 30 minutes, or request a new code later. We keep the email address you verified with while the listing is claimed, so that only you can edit it and so that we can contact you about the listing. We tell you by email when the listing is removed. We don’t use the address for anything else.
Correcting or removing your listing
Use the “Claim, correct or remove it” button on your listing, or email [email protected] telling us which listing it is and what you would like changed. If you can’t receive a code at an address we can verify, email us from your practice and we will verify by hand. When you remove a claimed listing yourself, we take it down with the next site update, delete the email address you verified with, and keep only your website address on the do-not-list record.
Who we share information with
We use a small number of service providers, who process information on our behalf and only on our instructions:
- Cloudflare delivers the site, protects it from attacks, stores our website statistics and checks the comment and listing-claim forms for spam.
- Our web hosting provider runs the system we use to manage the site’s content, comments and mailing list.
- Forward Email handles email sent to and from our @vagusnerve.com addresses, including our eBook and mailing-list emails and verification codes for directory listings.
Some of these providers process information outside the UK, including in the United States. Where data protection law requires it, these transfers are covered by recognised safeguards, such as the standard contractual clauses in the providers’ data processing terms. We may also disclose information if the law requires us to.
Your rights
You can ask us:
- for a copy of the personal information we hold about you;
- to correct it if it’s wrong;
- to delete it; and
- to stop or limit how we use it, including objecting to uses based on legitimate interests. For a directory listing, this means removing it.
Email [email protected] and we will reply within one month. If you’re unhappy with how we have handled your information, you can complain to the data protection regulator where you live. In the UK, that is the Information Commissioner’s Office. We would appreciate the chance to put things right first.
Children
This site is written for adults, and we don’t knowingly collect information from children.
Data sources and credits
The approximate locations of US ZIP codes used in our directory come from GeoNames, licensed under CC BY 4.0.
Changes to this notice
If we change how we handle personal information, we will update this page and the date at the top.