Merit Sciences ("Merit Sciences," "we," "us," or "our") operates the meritsciences.com storefront and related research-compound services (the "Services"). This Privacy Policy explains what information we collect when you visit our website, place an order, or apply for a Practitioner account, and how we use, share, and protect it.
By using the Services you confirm that you have read and understood this policy. If anything here is unclear, email us at info@meritpeptides.com before using the Services.
Who this policy applies to
This policy covers customers, Practitioner Program applicants and members, newsletter subscribers, and visitors to meritsciences.com. The Services are intended for adults located in the United States and are not directed to children. We do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 18, and we do not "sell" personal information as that term is defined under U.S. state privacy laws.
Information we collect
We collect the categories of information listed below. The exact data we hold about you depends on how you interact with the Services.
- Identity and contact information — name, shipping address, billing address, email address, and phone number when provided during checkout, account creation, or support requests.
- Order information — items purchased, quantities, order totals, applied discount or affiliate codes, fulfillment status, tracking numbers, and post-delivery activity (returns, replacements, refunds).
- Payment information — we do not store full credit-card numbers on our servers. Payments are processed by PayPal, which collects card details directly. We receive only a transaction reference, the last few digits of the card, and the billing name and address.
- Practitioner credentials — when you apply for a Practitioner account, we collect your NPI number, state license number, practice name, specialty, and the email and phone you use professionally. We use this to verify eligibility for practitioner pricing.
- Account and login data — sign-in tokens generated by our authentication provider, sign-in timestamps, and the IP address used to confirm a sign-in link.
- Marketing preferences — your subscription status for our newsletter and lifecycle emails, and your engagement signals (opens and clicks on emails we send).
- Device and usage data — IP address, browser type, device type, referring URL, pages visited, and timestamps. This is collected automatically by our hosting and analytics infrastructure.
- Cookies and similar technologies — see "Cookies" below.
How we use your information
We use the information we collect to:
- Process orders, charge payment, fulfill shipments, and send order, shipping, and delivery notifications.
- Verify Practitioner Program applications and apply practitioner-tier pricing for approved accounts.
- Issue magic-link sign-in emails for customer order lookup and the Practitioner Portal.
- Respond to support requests and provide service updates such as backorder notices, lot recalls, or policy changes that affect your orders.
- Send the marketing emails you have opted in to, and tailor product recommendations within those emails.
- Detect fraud, prevent abuse, secure our infrastructure, and enforce our Terms of Service.
- Comply with applicable laws, lawful requests from authorities, and our recordkeeping obligations as a seller of research compounds.
We do not use your information to make automated decisions that produce legal or similarly significant effects about you.
How we share your information
We share information only with the service providers and parties we need to in order to deliver the Services, and only to the extent each one needs. We do not sell your personal information and we do not share it for cross-context behavioral advertising.
- Payment processing — PayPal processes all transactions on our checkout, including PayPal balance, debit, and credit card flows. Their handling of your payment details is governed by the PayPal privacy notice.
- Order fulfillment and shipping — our fulfillment platform and the carriers we hand orders to (USPS, UPS) receive your name, shipping address, phone number (when provided), and the items in your order so they can print labels and deliver your package.
- Email delivery — our transactional and marketing email provider receives the email address, name, and message content for messages we send you.
- Hosting, database, and storage — our cloud hosting and managed database providers process the data we hold on our behalf.
- Authentication — our authentication provider issues and verifies magic-link sign-in tokens.
- Professional verification — Practitioner credentials may be verified against public licensing databases (NPI registry, state boards).
- Legal, safety, and corporate transactions — we may disclose information to comply with a lawful request, defend our legal rights, prevent harm, or in connection with a merger, acquisition, financing, or sale of our business or its assets.
All service providers are contractually limited to using your information only on our instructions and only to perform the service we have engaged them for.
Cookies and analytics
We use a small number of cookies and similar storage mechanisms to operate the site. These include:
- Session and cart cookies that keep you signed in and remember the items in your cart.
- Affiliate-attribution cookies that record an affiliate referral code at the moment of click so the correct credit is applied if you purchase.
- Analytics that count page visits and conversion events in aggregate. We do not use third-party advertising pixels and we do not retarget you on other platforms.
You can clear or block cookies in your browser settings. Doing so may break sign-in, cart, and affiliate-credit features.
Your rights and choices
Depending on where you reside, you may have the following rights regarding the information we hold about you. To exercise any of them, email info@meritpeptides.com from the address associated with your account. We will verify your identity before acting on the request.
- Access — request a copy of the personal information we hold about you.
- Correction — ask us to correct information that is inaccurate or out of date.
- Deletion — request that we delete information we hold about you, subject to our legal obligation to keep order, shipping, payment, and Practitioner-verification records for the periods required by tax, consumer-protection, and pharmacy-partner recordkeeping rules.
- Marketing opt-out — unsubscribe from any marketing email using the link in the email, or email us. Opting out of marketing does not stop transactional messages (order confirmations, shipping updates, magic-link sign-in emails) because those are necessary to deliver your order.
- Do Not Sell or Share — we do not sell personal information or share it for cross-context behavioral advertising, so no opt-out is required. If we ever change this, we will update this policy and provide a clear opt-out mechanism before doing so.
Data retention
We retain personal information for as long as we need it to provide the Services and as long as required by law. In practice that means:
- Order, shipping, and payment records are retained for at least seven years to satisfy tax and consumer-protection recordkeeping requirements.
- Practitioner verification documents are retained for as long as the account is active and for at least three years after deactivation.
- Newsletter subscriber data is retained until you unsubscribe, after which the email address is suppressed (kept on a do-not-mail list) rather than deleted, to ensure we do not accidentally re-add you.
- Authentication tokens expire automatically (typically within 60 minutes for sign-in links) and are not retained after expiration.
Data security
We use industry-standard technical and organizational measures to protect your information, including TLS encryption for all data in transit, encrypted-at-rest cloud storage, restricted access controls for our team, and signed webhooks for vendor-to-vendor integrations. No system is perfectly secure. We recommend that you use a strong, unique password for the email account associated with your Merit Sciences account, since that inbox can be used to request sign-in links.
International users
The Services are operated from the United States and we ship within the United States only. Information we collect is processed and stored in the United States. If you are accessing the Services from outside the United States, your information will be transferred to and processed in the United States, which may have different data-protection laws than your country of residence.
Children
The Services are intended for adults aged 18 and over. We do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 18. If you believe a child has provided us with personal information, contact us and we will delete it.
Changes to this policy
We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes to our practices, our service providers, or applicable law. When we make a change, we update the "Last updated" date at the top of the page. If the change is material, we will notify you by email or by a prominent notice on the Services before it takes effect.
Contact us
Questions, complaints, or rights requests can be sent to:
Merit Sciences
info@meritpeptides.com
Dallas, TX, United States