Privacy Policy

Effective as of April 20, 2025

Introduction

Welcome to Ouch Match (“Platform” or “Site”), operated by OUCH MATCH, LLC (“Ouch Match,” “we,” “our,” or “us”). Thank you for reviewing our Privacy Policy. This Privacy Policy is designed to assist you in understanding how we collect, use, and safeguard the information you provide to us when using our website.

In connection with your use of this Site, including participation in our forum, groups and subscription services, we may collect certain personal information about you. “Personal information” (sometimes called “personal data”) means information that identifies, relates to, describes, is reasonably capable of being associated with, or could reasonably be linked, directly or indirectly, with a particular consumer or household. This Statement informs you of our practices with respect to the collection, use, and disclosure of your personal information, as well as any rights you may have regarding your personal information.

We reserve the right to update this Statement periodically, and any such updates will be posted here. Your continued use of this Site, including the forum and subscription services, signifies your acknowledgment of and consent to this Statement, including any updates thereto.

Disclaimer

OUCH MATCH is not a medical service and does not provide medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Any content shared on our This Platform / Site, including personal recovery stories, user discussions, or general health tips, is for informational purposes only and should not be considered a substitute for professional medical advice. Always consult with a healthcare provider about medical concerns.

What Information About You Do We Collect?

We collect Personally Identifiable Information from you through your use of the Site and Services. “Personally Identifiable Information” is individually identifiable information about an individual consumer that we collect online and that we maintain in an accessible form.

We may collect the following Personally Identifiable Information that you voluntarily provide to us:

• Name, email address, phone number

• Profile details (such as injury type, recovery progress)

• Payment information (for any paid services, processed securely by third-party providers)

• Messages, posts, and other content you share

When you participate in our forum, we collect and store the content you generate, such as posts, comments, and any other contributions you make. This information is publicly visible to other users of the forum and may be used to enhance the community experience, for moderation purposes, and to ensure compliance with our terms of use.

Profile Information

To participate in the forum or groups, you may be required to create a user profile. The information collected for your profile may include:

Username: A unique identifier that will be displayed publicly in the forum.
Avatar: An optional image or icon that represents you in the forum.
Bio or Description: Optional information you choose to share about yourself.
Other Profile Details: Any additional information you choose to provide, such as interests or expertise.

This profile information helps personalize your experience and allows other users to engage with you more effectively.

Private Messaging

Our forum or groups may include a private messaging feature that allows you to communicate directly with other users. Messages sent through this feature are stored on our servers. While we respect your privacy, these messages may be accessed under certain circumstances, such as:

To comply with legal obligations or law enforcement requests.
To investigate and address violations of our terms of service or community guidelines.
To protect the rights and safety of our users and the public.

We encourage you to exercise caution when sharing personal information through private messages.

Also, if you contact us to ask a question or report a problem, we may collect personal information provided in that correspondence between you and Ouch Match.

To review or request changes to any of your Personally Identifiable Information, please contact us at info@ouchmatch.com

Information as You Navigate Our Site

We automatically collect certain Personally Identifiable Information through your use of the Site and Services, such as the following:

Usage Information. For example, pages on the Site you access, the frequency of access, and what you click on while on the Site.
Device Information. For example, hardware model and application version number.

Location Information. Location information from Site visitors on a country basis.

Third-Party Information

In some cases, we may receive certain Personally Identifiable Information from you about a third party. For example, as part of our registration process, you may provide the email address of a third party. If you submit any Personally Identifiable Information about another individual to us, you are responsible for making sure that you have the authority to do so and to allow us to use their Personally Identifiable Information in accordance with this Privacy Policy.

Cookies and Tracking Technologies

We use cookies and similar tracking technologies to improve your experience on OUCH MATCH.

What Are Cookies?

Cookies are small files stored on your device that help us recognize you and remember your preferences.

How We Use Cookies

• To improve website functionality and performance

• To analyze user behavior and enhance the user experience

• To remember your preferences and settings

• To provide relevant advertisements (if applicable)

Managing Cookies

You can disable cookies through your browser settings, but some features of the Platform may not function properly without them.

How We Use Your Personally Identifiable Information?

We use the Personally Identifiable Information we collect to provide the Services to you, to improve our Services and Site, and to protect our legal rights. In addition, we may use the Personally Identifiable Information we collect to:

Process your account registration;
Communicate with you about our Site or Services or to inform you of any changes to our Site or Services;
Provide support;
To provide you with personalized content: We may use your personal information to provide you with content that better suits your interests, including by sending you both generic and personalized information about Ouch Match, the Site, the Service, or third parties with whom we have a business relationship. For example, we partner with health associations and advertisers that link to and post content on our Site, and we may occasionally present their content to you if we believe it is of interest to you based on your use of the Site and Services. Likewise, we partner with pharmaceutical companies who occasionally sponsor clinical trials, and we may invite you to participate in an upcoming clinical trial if we believe it may be relevant to you.
To monitor and analyze technical trends, usage, and activities: We may use your personal information, in particular your “clickstream data” (e.g., IP address, login activity, pages you click on), to monitor and analyze usage patterns and improve performance of the Site and Service. We may also use such personal information to detect malicious or fraudulent activity and protect ourselves, the Site, the Service, and our users against such activity
Investigate, prevent, or take action regarding illegal activities, suspected fraud, situations involving potential threats to the physical safety of any person, or violations of our terms of use;
Defend our legal rights and the rights of others;
Efficiently maintain our business; and
Comply with applicable law.

In addition to the existing uses of your Personally Identifiable Information, the introduction of our forum or groups and subscription services involves additional data usage practices:

Forum or Groups Content Display

User-generated content, such as posts and comments, will be publicly visible on the forum. This visibility allows for community interaction and engagement. Please be aware that any information you share in the forum becomes public and can be viewed by other users.

Moderation and Security

We use your data to maintain a safe and respectful environment within the forum or groups. This includes:

Monitoring Content: We may review posts and comments to ensure compliance with our community guidelines and terms of service.
Preventing Abuse: Data may be used to detect and prevent spam, harassment, and other forms of abuse.
User Reporting: We may use data from user reports to investigate and address violations of our policies.

Analytics

We analyze forum or groups activity to improve the functionality and user experience of the forum or groups . This includes:

Usage Patterns: We collect data on how users interact with the forum or groups to identify trends and areas for improvement.
Feature Enhancement: Insights from analytics help us develop new features and optimize existing ones to better serve our community.
Performance Monitoring: We use analytics to ensure the forum or groups operates efficiently and effectively.

How We Share Your Personally Identifiable Information:

We may share the information that we collect about you in the following ways:

With organizations for research collaborations;
With service providers who perform data or Site-related services on our behalf (e.g., email, hosting, maintenance, backup, analysis, etc.);
To service providers to prepare, deploy and analyze advertising content;
To the extent that we are required to do so by law;
In connection with any legal proceedings or prospective legal proceedings;

To establish, exercise, or defend our legal rights, including providing information to others for the purposes of fraud prevention;
To any person who we reasonably believe may apply to a court or other competent authority for disclosure of that Personally Identifiable Information where, in our reasonable opinion, such court or authority would be reasonably likely to order disclosure of that Personally Identifiable Information;
To any other person or entity as part of any business or asset sale, equity transaction, merger, acquisition or in preparation for any of these events; and
To any other person or entity where you consent to the disclosure.

In addition to the existing ways we share your Personally Identifiable Information, the introduction of our forum, groups and subscription services involves additional data sharing practices:

Third-Party Services

We may use third-party services to host or manage the forum and related functionalities. These service providers may have access to certain data to perform their functions, including:

Hosting Providers: Data such as user-generated content, profile information, and forum activity may be stored on servers managed by third-party hosting providers.
Analytics Services: We may share forum usage data with analytics providers to help us understand user interactions and improve the forum experience.
Moderation Tools: If we use third-party tools for content moderation, these tools may access user-generated content to help us maintain a safe community environment.

We ensure that any third-party service providers we engage adhere to strict data protection standards and use your information only for the purposes specified in this policy.

Law Enforcement

We may disclose data related to the forum or groups to law enforcement agencies or other governmental bodies when required by law or in response to valid legal requests. This includes:

Compliance with Legal Obligations: We may share data to comply with subpoenas, court orders, or other legal processes.
Protection of Rights and Safety: Data may be disclosed to protect the rights, property, or safety of our users, the public, or Ouch Match.

We are committed to protecting your privacy and will only disclose information to law enforcement when legally obligated to do so.

Tracking Technologies

We use Google Analytics, an analytics service Google, Inc. provides. Google Analytics for Firebase uses tracking technologies to help us analyze how users interact with the Site and Services, compile reports on user activity, and provide other services related to user activity and usage. The technologies Google uses may collect information such as your time of visit and whether you are a returning visitor. The information Google Analytics for Firebase generates will be transmitted to and stored by Google and will be subject to Google’s privacy policies. To learn more about Google’s partner services and to learn how to opt out of tracking of analytics by Google, click here.

“Do Not Track” Signals

Some internet browsers incorporate a “Do Not Track” feature that signals to websites you visit that you do not want to have your online activity tracked. Given that there is not a uniform way that browsers communicate the “Do Not Track” signal, the Site does not currently interpret, respond to or alter its practices when it receives “Do Not Track” signals.

Third Party Links

The Site may contain links that will let you leave the Site and access another website. Linked websites are not under our control. This Privacy Policy applies solely to Personally Identifiable Information that is acquired by us on this Site. We accept no responsibility or liability for these other websites.

Public Forums or Groups

This Site may make available chat rooms, blogs, message boards, forums and groups. Please be aware that any information you disclose in these areas becomes public information upon disclosure and is not considered personal information under applicable privacy laws. This means:

Public Visibility: Any posts, comments, or other contributions you make in the forum are publicly visible to all users and may be indexed by search engines. This information can be accessed, used, and shared by others, and we have no control over how it is used once it is made public.
No Expectation of Privacy: Because the forum is a public space, you should have no expectation of privacy regarding any information you choose to share. We encourage you to exercise caution and avoid disclosing personal or sensitive information in these areas.
Responsibility for Shared Content: You are responsible for any information you disclose in the forum. We recommend that you carefully consider the content you share and understand that it may be viewed and used by others.
Moderation and Guidelines: While we strive to maintain a respectful and safe environment, we cannot guarantee the privacy or security of any information you disclose in public forums. We encourage you to adhere to our community guidelines and report any inappropriate content or behavior.

By participating in the forum or groups, you acknowledge and accept the public nature of these interactions and the potential for your information to be accessed and used by others.

Data Retention

We retain your personal information only as long as it is necessary to fulfill the purposes outlined in this Statement, which includes meeting any legal, accounting, or reporting obligations. To determine the appropriate retention period, we consider several factors: the amount, nature, and sensitivity of your personal information; the potential risks associated with unauthorized use or disclosure; the purposes for processing your information and whether those purposes can be met by other means; and our legal requirements. This approach ensures that your personal information is handled responsibly and in accordance with legal obligations.

Retention of Forum or Groups Data

User-Generated Content: Posts, comments, and other contributions made in the forum or groups are retained for as long as the forum is active or as needed to provide the forum services. This retention allows us to maintain the integrity and continuity of discussions and community interactions.
Profile Information: Profile data associated with forum participation is retained for the duration of your active account. If you choose to delete your account, we will remove your profile information from our active systems, although some data may be retained in backup or archival systems for a limited period as required by law or for legitimate business purposes.
Private Messages: Private messages are retained for the duration of your active account. If you delete a message or your account, the messages may be removed from active systems but could be retained in backup systems for a limited period.

Criteria for Retention

The retention period for forum data is determined based on several factors:

Purpose of Data Collection: We retain data as long as necessary to fulfill the purposes for which it was collected, such as providing forum services and maintaining community interactions.
Legal Obligations: We may retain data to comply with legal obligations, such as record-keeping requirements or responding to legal requests.
Business Needs: Data may be retained to protect our legal rights, resolve disputes, or enforce our agreements.

We regularly review our data retention practices to ensure that we are not retaining data longer than necessary and that we are in compliance with applicable laws and regulations.

Children

We are committed to protecting the privacy of children. The Site and Service, including the forum and groups, are not designed or intended to attract children under 13 years old. We do not knowingly collect personal information from any individual under 13 years old. If we become aware that we have inadvertently collected personal information from a child under 13, we will take steps to delete such information as soon as possible.

COPPA Compliance (US): If you are a parent or guardian and believe that your child under 13 has provided us with personal information, please contact us at info@ouchmatch.com so we can take appropriate action.
GDPR Compliance (EU): For users in the European Economic Area, we do not knowingly collect personal information from children under the age of 16 without verifiable parental consent. If you believe we have collected information from a child under 16, please contact us to address the issue.

Security

We maintain commercially reasonable security measures to protect the Personally Identifiable Information we collect and store from loss, misuse, destruction, or unauthorized access.

Forum or Groups Security Measures:

Data Encryption: We use encryption protocols to protect data transmitted between your device and our servers, ensuring that your information remains secure during transmission.
Access Controls: Access to forum data is restricted to authorized personnel only. We implement role-based access controls to ensure that only those with a legitimate need can access sensitive information.
Regular Security Audits: We conduct regular security audits and vulnerability assessments to identify and address potential security risks within the forum.
Monitoring and Logging: We actively monitor forum or groups activity for suspicious behavior and maintain logs to help detect and respond to potential security incidents.
User Authentication: We require users to create secure passwords and encourage the use of two-factor authentication to enhance account security.

While we strive to use commercially acceptable means to protect your Personally Identifiable Information, no security measure or modality of data transmission over the Internet is 100% secure. We encourage you to take steps to protect your personal information, such as using strong passwords and keeping your login credentials confidential.

Your Privacy Rights

Depending on your state or country of residence, you may have certain privacy rights with respect to your own personal information.

For example, if you reside in California, Colorado, Connecticut, Montana, Oregon, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, or Virginia, you have the following privacy rights with respect to your personal information:

Knowing about our processing practices. You have the right to know about our personal information processing practices (i.e., categories of personal information collected and the sources, uses, disclosures, retention, and sale or sharing of such personal information) at or before the point of collection. We have disclosed such practices in this Statement as they apply to personal information of our Guests and Members generally. You may also request that we provide you with the practices that apply to your personal information specifically over the last 12 months preceding your request.
Accessing your personal information. You have the right to ask us to provide you with the specific pieces of personal information we have collected about you thus far, in a portable format which you can transmit to another entity. You may not exercise this right more than twice in a calendar year. We will try to provide your requested personal information within 30 days of a written request.
Correcting your personal information. You have the right to ask us to rectify any of your personal information on our platform that is inaccurate or incomplete.
Deleting your personal information. You have the right to ask us to delete your personal information stored on our platform. We will ask you if you want your personal information to be deleted entirely or if you want to be kept on a list of individuals who simply do not want to be contacted in the future (for a specified period or otherwise). Please note that we may not be required to delete your personal information under certain circumstances as permitted by law, for example, where retention of your personal information is necessary to comply with our legal obligations, to complete a transaction, or for certain internal business purposes.
Opting out of sale or sharing of your personal information. You have the right to opt out of our sale or sharing of your personal information with third parties for monetary or non-monetary benefit. If you would like to opt out, please email us at info@ouchmatch.com
Limiting use of your sensitive personal information. You have the right to limit our use of your “sensitive personal information” to only certain necessary business purposes (e.g., providing and maintaining the Service, ensuring data security, sending non-personalized advertising). “Sensitive personal information” refers to a subset of personal information that specifically includes things like government identifiers (e.g., social security number, driver license number), login credentials, race, sexual orientation, religion, geolocation data, genetic information, citizenship, and union membership. If you would like to limit the use of such information to only certain necessary business purposes, please email us at info@ouchmatch.com.
Not being discriminated against. You have the right to not be discriminated against for exercising the above privacy rights (e.g., by being denied certain goods or services, being offered a different level of quality, or being charged a different price). We will not discriminate against you for exercising your applicable privacy rights.
Knowing about third-party direct marketing (California only). Under California Civil Code § 1798.83, if you are a California resident, you have the right to request, annually and free of charge, that we provide you a list of third parties to whom we have disclosed your personal information for their direct marketing purposes in the prior calendar year (and the types of personal information disclosed).

Likewise, if you reside in the European Economic Area (“EEA”), you have the following privacy rights with respect to your personal information:

Knowing about our processing practices (as described above).
Accessing your personal information (as described above).
Correcting your personal information (as described above).
Deleting your personal information (as described above).
Restricting the use of your personal information. We only process your personal information where we have the legal basis for doing so. You have the right to ask us to suspend or otherwise restrict the processing of your personal information where:
- You challenge the accuracy of the personal information;
- We no longer need the personal information for the purposes of the processing, but you want us to hold it as you need it to establish, exercise, or defend legal claims; or
- You have objected to our use of your data, but we need to verify whether we have legitimate grounds to use it.
Objecting to automated decision making and profiling. You have the right not to be subject to a decision based solely on automated processing, including profiling, which produces legal effects concerning you or similarly significantly affects you.
Withdrawing your consent. Where we rely on your consent as the lawful basis to process your personal information, you have the right to withdraw your consent at any time. Note that this will not affect the lawfulness of any processing carried out before you withdraw your consent. If you withdraw your consent, we may not be able to provide certain products or services to you.

Depending on your state or country of residence, you may have certain privacy rights with respect to your personal information. With the introduction of our forum or groups, we want to reinforce your rights regarding your forum or groups data:

Access and Deletion

Access to Forum or Groups Data: You have the right to request access to the personal information we hold about you, including any data related to your forum activity, such as posts, comments, and profile information. We will provide you with a copy of this data in a portable format upon request.
Deletion of Forum or Groups Data: You have the right to request the deletion of your forum or groups data. This includes the removal of your posts, comments, and profile information from our active systems. Please note that while we will make every effort to delete your data, some information may be retained in backup or archival systems for a limited period as required by law or for legitimate business purposes.

Correction

Correction of Forum Data: You have the right to request corrections to any inaccuracies in your forum data. This includes updating your profile information or correcting any errors in your posts or comments. We encourage you to keep your information accurate and up-to-date to ensure the best possible experience on our platform.

To exercise any of these rights, please contact us at info@ouchmatch.com with "Personal Information Privacy Request" in the subject line and include your name, email, and a description of your request in the email body. We will respond to your request consistent with applicable law.

You can exercise any of your applicable privacy rights by contacting us at info@ouchmatch.com and including “Personal Information Privacy Request” in the subject line and your name, email, and address in the email body. Consumers in some jurisdictions may also authorize an agent to make privacy rights requests on their behalf. In order to process your privacy right request, we may need to first verify your identity by asking you to provide certain personal information (even if the request is submitted by your agent). We will respond to your request consistent with applicable law.

If we have shared your personal information with any third parties and subsequently receive a privacy rights request from you to correct, delete, or restrict the use or sale/sharing of your personal information, we will notify those third parties of the request where reasonably practicable so that they may reflect the change in their records and practices as well. However, we will not be able to audit those third parties to ensure that such change has occurred.

In some instances, we may reject your privacy rights request if an exception applies under applicable privacy law. If you reside in Colorado, Montana, Oregon, Tennessee, Texas, or Virginia (but not California or Utah), you may have the right to appeal our rejection. To appeal, you may contact us at info@ouchmatch.com with a copy of or specific reference to our rejection, and we will adequately address your appeal in accordance with applicable law. If you reside in the EEA and we have rejected your request or you believe that we otherwise have not complied with applicable data protection laws, you may lodge a complaint with your local supervisory authority.

Notification of Changes

We reserve the right to update this Privacy Policy periodically to reflect changes in our practices, technology, legal requirements, and other factors. When we make changes to this Privacy Policy, we will:

Post the Updated Policy: The revised Privacy Policy will be posted on our Site with a new effective date.
Notify Users: We will notify you of significant changes to this Privacy Policy through email or a prominent notice on our Site, especially those related to the forum and subscription services.
User Acknowledgment: Your continued use of the Site, including the forum, after any changes to this Privacy Policy signifies your acknowledgment and acceptance of the updated terms.

How to Contact Us

To contact us for questions or concerns about our privacy policies or practices please email us at info@ouchmatch.com