Privacy Policy

1. Who we are and what this policy covers

PainHero ("PainHero", "we", "us") is operated by Clinic Accelerator Inc., an Alberta corporation with its registered office at 11510 40 Street SE, Calgary, Alberta T2Z 4V6. PainHero is an online directory that helps people find physiotherapy, physical therapy, chiropractic, massage therapy, mental health and other rehab clinics and practitioners in Canada and the United States.

This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, share and protect personal information when you use painhero.ca and its related pages, forms, emails and clinic portal (the "Service"). It applies to:

• Visitors and patients who search the directory, request a free consult or click through to book with a clinic.
• Clinic owners, staff and practitioners who claim a listing, use the clinic portal or appear in a clinician profile.

PainHero is not a healthcare provider. We do not diagnose, treat or keep medical records. When you send a request to a clinic, that clinic is an independent business and handles your information under its own privacy policy and the health privacy laws that apply to it.

We follow Canada's Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA), applicable provincial laws including Alberta's Personal Information Protection Act (PIPA) and Quebec's Act respecting the protection of personal information in the private sector (Law 25), and applicable U.S. state privacy and consumer health data laws.

2. Information we collect

Information you give us

Health information. The consult message box is optional. Anything you type there (for example, a symptom or injury) may be health information. Please share only what the clinic needs to respond. We use it only to pass your request to the clinic you chose and to deliver the Service.

Information collected automatically

• Pages you view, searches you run (condition, treatment, provider, location), and clicks on "Book Appointment" or "Call Clinic".
• Device and browser type, IP address, referring page and campaign tags (UTM parameters).
• Your location: if you allow it, your browser shares your approximate position so we can suggest your city. You can say no and type a location instead. We also store your country (Canada or U.S.) in a cookie.
• Analytics and advertising data through Google and Meta, only if you accept those cookies (see section 5).

Information from other sources

Clinic and practitioner listings are built from information clinics give us and from public sources, such as clinic websites, public business listings and professional registries. When a clinic owner starts a claim, we review the clinic's public website to generate a listing preview, with the owner's authorization.

3. How we use your information and your consent

We use personal information to:

1. Connect you with a clinic — send your consult request to the clinic you chose and email you a confirmation.
2. Run the directory — show search results near you, display clinic and practitioner profiles, and route "Book Appointment" clicks to the clinic's own booking system.
3. Onboard and support clinics — verify that a person owns or represents a clinic, build and publish Premium Listings, run the clinic portal, notify clinics of new leads, and provide clinic performance reports.
4. Keep the Service secure — authenticate users, prevent spam, fraud and abuse, and keep audit logs.
5. Improve the Service — understand which pages and searches are useful, using aggregated analytics, and, if you accept advertising cookies, measure and improve our advertising.
6. Communicate with you — answer questions and send service messages, such as password setup and claim status emails.
7. Meet legal obligations — respond to lawful requests and enforce our Terms.

Consent. We collect, use and share personal information with your consent, which may be express (for example, when you submit a consult form stating that "PainHero and the relevant clinic may contact you about your request") or implied where reasonable. You can withdraw consent at any time by contacting us (section 6); this may limit what we can do for you, but it won't undo actions already taken, such as a request already sent to a clinic.

Marketing emails. We do not send marketing emails to patients. We may send marketing emails to clinic owners and staff (for example, product news and tips to get more patients) only with consent, as required by Canada's Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL) and the U.S. CAN-SPAM Act. Every marketing email includes an unsubscribe link, and you can opt out at any time without affecting service emails such as lead notifications and password setup.

We do not sell your personal information for money. If you accept advertising cookies, our advertising partners (Meta and Google) receive information about your visit, such as pages viewed, to measure and show PainHero ads. Some U.S. state laws call this "sharing" or "targeted advertising"; you can opt out at any time by declining advertising cookies in Cookie settings. We never send consult form contents, health details or what you write in the message box to advertising partners.

4. How we share information

• With the clinic you choose. When you submit a consult request, we send your name, contact details, message and selected condition to that clinic. The clinic then handles your information under its own privacy practices.
• Public listings. Clinic profiles and practitioner profiles (name, credentials, clinic, location, services) are public by design. Patient information is never published.
• Service providers who host, run or support the Service for us, under contracts that limit their use of your information. These include: cloud hosting and storage in Canada, email delivery (Google Workspace), Google Analytics (Google LLC), HubSpot (meeting scheduling for clinic Verification Calls), and Meta/Instagram and Google Business Profile when a clinic connects them.
• Advertising partners. Only if you accept advertising cookies: Meta Platforms (Facebook/Instagram) and Google (Google Ads) receive browsing data from our site through their pixels and tags, to measure and show PainHero ads. See section 5.
• Legal and safety reasons. When required by law, court order or a government request, or to protect the rights, safety or property of PainHero, our users or the public.
• Business transfers. If PainHero or Clinic Accelerator Inc. is merged, acquired or sells assets, personal information may transfer to the buyer under this policy.

Cross-border processing. We store PainHero data on servers in Canada. Some service providers (such as Google, Meta and HubSpot) process information in the United States or other countries. Information processed outside your province, state or country may be accessible to courts and authorities there under local law.

5. Cookies and similar technologies

We use a small number of cookies and browser storage items. Analytics and advertising cookies are off until you accept them in our cookie banner, and you can change your choice any time with Cookie settings in the site footer.

Google tags run in Consent Mode: analytics and advertising storage stay denied until you accept. Learn how Google uses data at policies.google.com/technologies/partner-sites, use the Google Analytics opt-out add-on, or manage Meta ad preferences in your Meta account settings.

Advertising pixels never fire on consult form submissions with your form contents, and we do not use health details for ad targeting. Links and embeds from Instagram and Google Maps follow those companies' own policies when you click or open them.

6. Retention, security, your rights and contact

How long we keep information. We keep personal information only as long as it is needed for the purposes in this policy, such as responding to your request, clinic lead reporting, resolving disputes and meeting legal obligations. After that, we delete it or anonymize it so it can no longer identify you. We may keep anonymized and aggregated data (for example, how many consult requests a city receives) indefinitely.

Security. We use safeguards suited to the sensitivity of the information, including encryption in transit (HTTPS), encrypted password storage, optional multi-factor authentication and session controls for clinic accounts, role-based access, and audit logging. No system is perfectly secure; if a breach creates a real risk of significant harm, we will notify affected people and regulators as the law requires.

Your rights. Depending on where you live, you can ask to:

• access the personal information we hold about you and learn how it was used and shared;
• correct inaccurate information;
• delete your information, or withdraw consent;
• receive your information in a portable format (Quebec and some U.S. states);
• opt out of targeted advertising or "sharing" by declining advertising cookies or contacting us;
• have a practitioner or clinic profile corrected or removed.

We respond within 30 days and won't treat you differently for using your rights. We may need to verify your identity first. U.S. residents may use an authorized agent and appeal a decision by replying to our response. If you're not satisfied, you can contact the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada, the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Alberta, the Commission d'accès à l'information du Québec, or your state attorney general.

Age requirement. You must be 18 or older to submit a consult request or create an account. A parent or guardian should submit requests for anyone under 18. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children; if you believe a child has sent us information, contact us and we'll delete it.

Changes to this policy. We'll post any update here with a new "Last updated" date, and tell clinic account holders about material changes by email.

Contact our Privacy Officer

Privacy Officer, PainHero
Clinic Accelerator Inc., 11510 40 Street SE, Calgary, Alberta T2Z 4V6
Email: info@painhero.ca