Consumer Health Data Privacy Policy

This policy supplements The Counsel Privacy Policy and explains how The Counsel handles “consumer health data” under laws including Washington's My Health My Data Act, Nevada's consumer health data law, and Connecticut privacy law where those laws apply. It applies to consumers and data within the scope of those laws.

Contact: thecounseldating@gmail.com | The Counsel Social LLC, 502 W 7th St, Ste 100, Erie, PA 16502-1333

Where to find this policy. A separate and distinct link to this policy appears on The Counsel homepage and in the app under Settings.

1. Consumer health data we collect

Consumer health data is defined broadly. Depending on the law and how information is used, it may include:

• Profile answers you choose to provide, such as height, weight, exercise or fitness/activity level, and whether you drink alcohol, smoke, or use drugs.
• Inferences or outputs derived from health-related answers, such as whether an answer satisfies a filter or dealbreaker or contributes to a compatibility result.
• Free-form content you write that mentions physical or mental health, symptoms, treatment, reproductive or sexual health, gender-affirming care, medications, disability, or other health-related information in a bio, prompt, message, review, report, or other content.
• Other information that a law treats as health data because we use it to identify or infer a health status.

We do not intentionally collect biometric identifiers through Selfie Checked. We round device location to approximately 1 kilometer before storage and do not use location to infer that a consumer sought health care. We do not create geofences around health-care facilities or use location to target people based on visiting such facilities.

2. Sources

We receive consumer health data directly from you when you answer profile questions or write content. Our systems may derive limited matching or filter results from those answers. We may also receive health-related information about you if another member includes it in a report or conversation involving you, but we use that information only for the feature, safety, or legal purpose that justifies processing it.

3. How we use consumer health data

• Display a health-related profile answer only if you separately choose to show it where applicable law requires a separate sharing choice.
• Use an answer privately for matching, Docket ordering, filters, or dealbreakers when you have consented or when the law permits processing because the feature is one you requested.
• Deliver free-form content to the person or audience you intentionally send or post it to.
• Protect the Service, investigate reports, prevent fraud or harassment, preserve evidence, and comply with law where the applicable law allows that safety or legal processing.
• Process free-form content through an optional AI feature only under the consent and feature rules below.

We do not use consumer health data for advertising and do not sell consumer health data.

Optional AI processing

Structured health-related profile answers are not sent to generative AI features. Free-form content can contain health information, so optional AI processing follows these rules: Counsel Insight and server-side translation or message-help features that process both sides of a private conversation run only when both participants have enabled AI chat processing. A feature that processes another member's free-form profile text runs only if that member has enabled AI processing of profile text. Features operating only on your own draft or content may run when you request them.

4. Consent

Collection and use consent. Before we save a structured profile answer that requires health-data consent, the app presents a clear affirmative opt-in describing the categories collected, the purposes, and how to withdraw consent. Accepting the Terms or general Privacy Policy does not count as health-data consent.

Separate sharing choice. Where Washington, Nevada, or another applicable law requires consent to share consumer health data that is separate and distinct from collection consent, the app uses a separate affirmative control before displaying that answer to other members or otherwise sharing it: a "Show on my profile" switch for each answer, off until you turn it on. The app explains what will be shown, to whom, for what purpose, and how to turn it off again (Settings > Sensitive information).

Service-provider processing. Google Firebase and Google Cloud act as processors/service providers for hosting and other operations. We disclose consumer health data to a processor only under appropriate contractual restrictions and only as necessary for a purpose disclosed here, a service you requested, safety/security, or another lawful basis. Optional Gemini processing follows the AI consent rules above.

Withdrawal. You can remove an answer or withdraw consent in Settings > Sensitive information. That stops future covered processing of the structured answer and removes it from active profile/matching use, subject to lawful retention of consent records, safety records, legal holds, or backups. Health information you independently wrote in messages, reviews, bios, prompts, or reports follows the deletion controls and retention rules for that content.

5. Who receives consumer health data

We do not currently disclose consumer health data to an affiliate for the affiliate's independent purposes. If a new affiliate disclosure requires consent, we will obtain that consent first. We do not disclose consumer health data to AdMob or other advertising partners for targeted advertising.

6. Your rights

Where applicable law provides these rights, you may:

• confirm whether we collect, share, or sell consumer health data and access the data;
• obtain information about third parties or affiliates with whom applicable law treats us as having shared or sold consumer health data, including contact information where required;
• withdraw consent to future collection or sharing;
• request deletion, including deletion by processors and from archived or backup systems subject to the timelines and exceptions allowed by law;
• appeal a denial of a request; and
• exercise these rights without unlawful discrimination.

Use Edit Profile, Settings > Sensitive information, Settings > Download my data, or Settings > Manage account > Delete account where the requested action is available. You may also email thecounseldating@gmail.com with “Health data request” in the subject line. We authenticate requests using information reasonably necessary to protect the account.

Timing. We respond within the period required by applicable law, generally within 45 days for these U.S. state health-data requests, with any lawful extension. Backup deletion can take longer where the statute expressly permits it. For example, Washington law permits deletion from archived or backup systems to be delayed for restoration needs for up to six months after authentication of the request.

Appeals. If we deny a request and the applicable law provides an appeal, email thecounseldating@gmail.com with “Health data appeal” in the subject line. We will respond within the applicable deadline and provide the required information about contacting the relevant attorney general or regulator.

7. Retention and deletion

Structured health-related profile answers are kept only while needed for the consented feature and are removed from active use when you remove the answer, withdraw the applicable consent, or delete the account, subject to lawful exceptions. Consent records may be retained as necessary to demonstrate compliance.

Free-form health information follows the retention period for the content that contains it. A health statement in a message follows message retention; health information in a safety report follows report and safety-record retention.

Deletion requests are propagated to processors as required by law. Archived or backup copies are deleted or overwritten according to the legally permitted backup process. We do not restore deleted health data into active use except as technically necessary to restore a backup, in which case the deletion request remains pending and must be reapplied as required by law.

8. Security

We restrict consumer health data access to personnel and processors that need it for the disclosed purpose, a service you requested, safety/security, or legal compliance. We use administrative, technical, and physical safeguards appropriate to the nature and volume of the data, including access controls and encryption in transit and at rest where supported.

9. No sale and no health-care geofencing

We do not sell consumer health data. If we ever proposed a transaction that legally qualifies as a sale, we would first obtain the separate valid authorization required by applicable law. We do not use a geofence around an entity that provides health care services to identify or track consumers, collect health data, or send health-related messages or advertisements.

10. Changes

If we want to collect a new category of consumer health data or use or share consumer health data for a materially new purpose, we will update this policy and obtain any new consent required before the new collection, use, or sharing occurs. Material policy changes will be communicated as required by law.

Contact: thecounseldating@gmail.com | The Counsel Social LLC, 502 W 7th St, Ste 100, Erie, PA 16502-1333