AIDS RESEARCH CENTER
Privacy-first health website checklist

PURPOSE AND NECESSITY
- List every category of information the site receives.
- Remove any field, identifier, cookie or log not necessary for the stated service.
- Do not collect diagnosis, test, exposure or sexual-history information for general education.
- Explain strictly necessary operational processing in plain language.

SEARCH AND NAVIGATION
- Keep sensitive onsite searches in browser state or a URL fragment when possible.
- Do not send search terms to analytics, advertising or personalization systems.
- Prevent saved pages and preferences from becoming an account-linked health profile.
- Use clear external-link notices and privacy-preserving referrer behavior.

COOKIES, EMBEDS AND THIRD PARTIES
- Do not install advertising or behavioral analytics cookies.
- Avoid social-media pixels, embedded chat widgets and unnecessary third-party fonts.
- Review every external script, iframe, video and map for data transmission.
- Document the purpose, recipient, retention and user choice for every necessary third party.

FORMS AND CONTACT
- Prefer a direct user-initiated email client link when a server form is unnecessary.
- Do not publish a contact address broadly when a contextual contact control is sufficient.
- Tell users not to submit health records, passwords or identity documents.
- Collect the minimum information needed to handle the specific request.

LOCAL DEVICE FEATURES
- Use local browser storage only for optional device-local preferences.
- Name each local-storage key and explain what it contains.
- Provide a visible way to clear saved data.
- Never imply local storage is anonymous if other identifiers are added later.

SECURITY AND RETENTION
- Limit operational logs to availability, security and abuse prevention.
- Restrict access, keep retention short and prohibit secondary profiling use.
- Publish a responsible security-reporting route.
- Review downloads and outbound links for compromise or misdirection.

GOVERNANCE
- Maintain a dated privacy policy, cookie notice, terms, ethical statement and change history.
- Make material privacy changes visible before or when they take effect.
- Reassess the design whenever a new form, account, embed, analytics tool or AI feature is proposed.

Reference principles:
- European Commission data-protection principles: https://commission.europa.eu/law/law-topic/data-protection/information-business-and-organisations/principles-gdpr_en
- WHO data principles: https://www.who.int/data/principles/

This checklist is educational and is not legal advice.