The terms and privacy practices governing the SecureMedAssist website and platform, operated by Interview Smile LLC. If you received a survey invitation by email, text, or phone, see the Patient Privacy Policy.
These Terms of Service (the "Terms") are a binding agreement between you and Interview Smile LLC ("Interview Smile," "we," "us," or "our") and govern your access to and use of (a) the website located at securemedassist.com and any associated public pages operated by us (the "Site") and (b) the SecureMedAssist software-as-a-service platform, including its researcher dashboard, survey builder, patient outreach features, public survey pages, and related application programming interfaces (collectively, the "Platform," and together with the Site, the "Services"). SecureMedAssist ("SMA") is a product of Interview Smile LLC.
By accessing or using any part of the Services, you acknowledge that you have read, understood, and agree to be bound by these Terms and by our Privacy Policy and, where applicable, our Patient Privacy Policy, each of which is incorporated by reference. If you use the Platform on behalf of an organization, you represent and warrant that you have the authority to bind that organization to these Terms, and "Customer" refers to that organization. If you do not agree to these Terms, you must not access or use the Services.
PLEASE READ SECTION 22 ("DISPUTE RESOLUTION; BINDING ARBITRATION; CLASS ACTION WAIVER") CAREFULLY. IT REQUIRES THAT MOST DISPUTES BE RESOLVED THROUGH BINDING INDIVIDUAL ARBITRATION AND WAIVES THE RIGHT TO A JURY TRIAL AND TO PARTICIPATE IN CLASS ACTIONS, SUBJECT TO A RIGHT TO OPT OUT.
The Site and the researcher-facing portions of the Platform are intended for use by professionals acting on behalf of healthcare institutions, research programs, and related organizations. They are not directed to children and are not intended for individuals seeking medical care. By using the Site or the researcher-facing Platform you represent that you are at least 18 years of age. Public survey pages are intended only for individuals whom a Customer has invited to participate in a study in accordance with the study's consent process (which, for studies lawfully involving minors, is the Customer's responsibility under Section 8.4), or for individuals previewing a publicly shared sample survey.
The Site is an informational and marketing website that describes the Platform. The Site is provided for general informational purposes only. Nothing on the Site constitutes a binding offer, a warranty of the Platform's capabilities, or professional, legal, medical, or compliance advice. The Site is not used to collect, store, process, or transmit PHI, and you must not submit PHI, patient data, or other sensitive personal information through the contact or request-access forms. You are responsible for the accuracy of the information you submit through those forms.
4.1 Invitation-only access. Platform accounts are provisioned by invitation only, following our review of an access request. We may approve or decline any access request in our sole discretion.
4.2 Sandbox and production. New accounts begin in a sandbox mode in which live patient outreach is disabled, participant uploads are limited to a small number of test contacts, and test messages may be sent only as described in Section 4.4. Live outreach for a study requires our approval of a launch review for that study, including Customer's completion of the attestation checklist described in Section 8, and an executed BAA where Patient Data constitutes PHI.
4.3 Authorized Users; credentials. Customer is responsible for all activity occurring under its account and its Authorized Users' credentials, and for ensuring that each Authorized User complies with these Terms. Customer must invite only individuals authorized to act on its behalf, keep credentials confidential, and notify us promptly at legal@interviewsmile.com of any suspected unauthorized access. We may rely on instructions received through an authenticated account session as instructions of Customer.
4.4 Test sends. The Platform allows Authorized Users to send test emails, test text messages, and test automated calls before launch. Test emails are sent only to the Authorized User's own account email address. For test text messages and test calls, the Authorized User must enter only a telephone number that they own or are authorized to use and at which they consent to receive automated text messages and automated, artificial-voice calls. Entering any other person's number without that person's prior express consent is a material breach of these Terms.
5.1 Packages. Platform use for live studies is sold in packages with stated caps on uploaded participants, surveys, and the length of the active collection window, as published on the Site or agreed in an Order. Completed survey responses are not capped and are never billed separately; there are no overage charges. When a cap is reached, the affected action is blocked and Customer may contact us to move to a larger package.
5.2 Payment. Fees are payable by invoice or institutional purchase order as agreed in the Order. Unless the Order states otherwise, fees are due as invoiced, are stated and payable in U.S. dollars, are exclusive of applicable taxes (which are Customer's responsibility, excluding taxes on our income), and are non-refundable except as expressly stated in the Order or required by law. We may suspend launch approval, or suspend live outreach following written notice and a reasonable opportunity to cure, for material nonpayment.
6.1 Ownership. As between the parties, Customer owns all right, title, and interest in Customer Data, including uploaded patient lists and survey responses collected for Customer's studies.
6.2 License to us. Customer grants Interview Smile LLC a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to host, copy, transmit, process, and display Customer Data solely (a) to provide, secure, and support the Services, including conducting outreach at Customer's direction and generating exports and reports for Customer; (b) to comply with applicable law; and (c) as otherwise instructed by Customer in writing. We do not sell Customer Data, do not use Patient Data for advertising, and do not use Patient Data to train artificial-intelligence models.
6.3 Customer responsibility. Customer is solely responsible for the accuracy, quality, and lawfulness of Customer Data; for having the legal right to upload it; for the content of its survey instruments and patient-facing text (including the email subject and intro text, the patient-facing study name, and any approved translation); and for its own compliance with research regulations applicable to it, including obtaining and maintaining Institutional Review Board ("IRB") approval or a documented exemption where required.
6.4 Aggregated data. We may generate and use data about the operation and performance of the Services (for example, delivery counts and system telemetry) that does not identify Customer or any individual, for the purpose of operating and improving the Services.
Where Customer is a covered entity or business associate under HIPAA and Patient Data constitutes PHI, the parties will execute a BAA before any PHI is uploaded to the Platform, and we will process PHI only as permitted by that BAA. In the event of a conflict, the order of precedence is: (1) the BAA, with respect to PHI; (2) the Order; and (3) these Terms. These Terms do not modify either party's obligations under HIPAA.
The Platform sends survey invitations and reminders by email and text message and, where enabled by Customer, places automated telephone calls using an artificial-intelligence voice agent. All outreach is initiated at Customer's direction. As between Customer and Interview Smile LLC, Customer is the sender and initiator of every message and call sent through the Platform to Customer's uploaded contacts, and Interview Smile LLC acts solely as a technology services provider transmitting communications at Customer's direction.
8.1 Customer consent representations. Customer represents, warrants, and covenants that, before uploading any individual's contact information to the Platform and on a continuing basis thereafter:
8.2 Consent attestation. The Platform requires an Authorized User to affirmatively attest, at each patient-list upload and at launch review, that the consents described in Section 8.1 have been obtained. Each attestation is a binding certification by Customer on which we rely. We record each attestation (including the attesting user, timestamp, attestation wording version, and source IP address) and retain it as an audit record, and we may produce it in connection with any regulatory inquiry, claim, or dispute concerning outreach.
8.3 Consent records. Customer will maintain records evidencing each individual's consent (including the consent language, date, and scope) for at least four (4) years after the last outreach to that individual, and will provide those records to us promptly on request in connection with any complaint, inquiry, or claim.
8.4 Prohibited uploads. Customer must not upload contact information for, or direct outreach to, any individual (a) who has not provided the consents described in Section 8.1, (b) who has revoked them, (c) whom Customer knows or should know is a minor without the consent of a parent or legal guardian where required, or (d) obtained from purchased lists, data brokers, scraping, or any source other than Customer's own lawful relationship with the individual.
8.5 Outreach indemnity. In addition to Section 21, Customer agrees to defend, indemnify, and hold harmless Interview Smile LLC and its officers, members, employees, and agents from and against any and all claims, actions, investigations, damages, statutory penalties, fines, settlements, and expenses (including reasonable attorneys' fees) arising out of or relating to outreach initiated at Customer's direction without the consents required by applicable law, or in breach of this Section 8, including claims under the TCPA, state mini-TCPA and telemarketing laws, call-recording laws, CASL, or the CRTC Unsolicited Telecommunications Rules. This indemnity is not subject to the limitation of liability in Section 20.
The Platform is designed with outreach safeguards, which we maintain as service features (not as legal advice or a guarantee of Customer's compliance):
Customer must not attempt to circumvent these safeguards, including by re-uploading opted-out individuals, splitting contacts across surveys to evade caps, or instructing outreach inconsistent with a recorded opt-out.
10.1 AI voice agent. The optional voice channel places calls using an artificial-intelligence voice agent. The agent is configured to identify itself as an AI assistant, to obtain the individual's verbal consent before asking any survey question, to decline to discuss clinical topics, to hang up on voicemail without leaving a message, and, if the individual expresses thoughts of self-harm or a medical emergency, to provide 911/988 guidance and end the call, recording a safety flag for Customer's review. Customer acknowledges that (a) AI systems are probabilistic and the agent's conversational behavior cannot be guaranteed in every interaction; (b) the safety flag is an informational signal only — the Platform is not a crisis-monitoring, clinical-triage, or emergency-response service and must not be relied on as one; and (c) Customer is responsible for reviewing safety flags and for any clinical follow-up obligations it has to its participants. We do not store call recordings or transcripts on the Platform; call audio is processed by our voice technology sub-processor under a business associate agreement.
10.2 AI translations. The Platform can generate machine-drafted translations of survey instruments and patient-facing text. A translation is never shown to patients until Customer approves it. Customer is solely responsible for the accuracy and adequacy of every translation it approves, including verifying low-confidence drafts with a fluent human reviewer and meeting any IRB or regulatory requirement for certified or validated translations. Machine translations are provided "as is."
If you are an individual who received a survey invitation, the following applies to your use of the public survey page:
You agree to use the Services only for lawful purposes and in accordance with these Terms. You must not:
13.1 Retention schedule. Participant contact information (name, email, phone) is permanently deleted as soon as that participant's outreach is complete. Remaining study data (survey responses and delivery records) is permanently deleted when Customer closes the study, and in any case automatically 365 days after the last participant was added to a survey if the study is never closed. We send an advance notice before any inactivity-based deletion. Survey instruments (questions and structure, which contain no Patient Data) and audit records of attestations and approvals are retained.
13.2 Export responsibility. Customer may export its datasets (results, codebook, and delivery reports) at any time before deletion, and is solely responsible for exporting and preserving any data it needs before the scheduled deletion date. Deletion is permanent and not recoverable. Provided we have sent the scheduled notices, we have no liability for data deleted in accordance with this Section.
13.3 Deletion on request. Customer may delete individual participants, or draft surveys together with their uploaded participants, through the Platform at any time. The handling of PHI on termination is governed by the BAA.
We may suspend or restrict access to all or part of the Platform, or pause outreach, with notice where practicable, if (a) we reasonably believe Customer or an Authorized User has materially breached these Terms, including Section 8 or Section 12; (b) suspension is reasonably necessary to prevent harm to respondents, other customers, the Services, or third parties, or to comply with law or the direction of a regulator or carrier; (c) outreach through Customer's account generates complaint, opt-out, or failure rates that we reasonably consider abnormal pending investigation; or (d) amounts due remain unpaid following notice under Section 5.2. We will limit any suspension in scope and duration to what is reasonably necessary and will restore access promptly once the basis for suspension is resolved.
15.1 Term. These Terms apply from your first use of the Services and continue until terminated. Each study's active collection window is set out in the Order, and data retention and deletion are governed by Section 13.
15.2 Termination by Customer. Customer may stop using the Platform at any time and may request account closure by written notice to legal@interviewsmile.com. Fees already due remain payable.
15.3 Termination by us. We may terminate Customer's access for material breach that remains uncured 30 days after written notice (or immediately for a breach of Sections 8 or 12 that we reasonably determine cannot be cured or poses ongoing legal risk), or if required by law. We may also discontinue the Site or any free or sandbox feature at any time.
15.4 Effect. On termination, Customer's access ends and we will handle Patient Data as required by the BAA and Section 13. Sections that by their nature should survive — including Sections 6.2(b)–(c) (to complete deletion), 8.3, 8.5, and 13 through 26 — survive termination.
Each party may receive non-public information from the other that is identified as confidential or that a reasonable person would understand to be confidential ("Confidential Information"). The receiving party will use the disclosing party's Confidential Information only to perform under these Terms, protect it with at least reasonable care, and not disclose it except to personnel and contractors bound by confidentiality obligations at least as protective, or as required by law (with notice to the disclosing party where legally permitted). Customer Data is Customer's Confidential Information; the non-public features, security details, and pricing of the Platform are ours. PHI is governed by the BAA, not this Section.
The Services and all of their contents — including software, text, graphics, logos, page design, and the "SecureMedAssist" and "Interview Smile" names and wordmarks — are owned by or licensed to Interview Smile LLC and are protected by intellectual property laws. Subject to these Terms, we grant Customer a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable, non-sublicensable license to access and use the Platform during the applicable term for its internal research and patient-outreach purposes, and we grant Site visitors a limited, revocable license to access and view the Site for evaluation purposes. No other rights are granted. If you provide suggestions, ideas, or other feedback about the Services, you grant Interview Smile LLC a non-exclusive, worldwide, perpetual, irrevocable, royalty-free, sublicensable license to use that feedback for any purpose without restriction or obligation to you, provided that feedback never includes Patient Data.
The Services interoperate with third-party services — including cloud hosting, email and text-message delivery, telephone carriers, and an AI voice vendor — to deliver outreach. Vendors that process PHI on our behalf do so under business associate agreements, as described in our sub-processor documentation. If Customer connects its own REDCap project, that REDCap project is Customer's controlled source/destination, not our sub-processor; Customer is responsible for its REDCap permissions, IRB authorization, access controls, and retention once data is in REDCap. We are not responsible for the acts or omissions of telephone carriers, mailbox providers, customer-controlled REDCap projects, or other systems outside our control, including message filtering, blocking, delayed delivery, or customer-side data handling. The Site may contain links to third-party websites; we provide these for convenience only and are not responsible for their content or practices.
EXCEPT AS EXPRESSLY STATED IN AN ORDER OR THE BAA, THE SERVICES AND ALL RELATED CONTENT ARE PROVIDED "AS IS" AND "AS AVAILABLE" WITHOUT WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, WHETHER EXPRESS, IMPLIED, OR STATUTORY, INCLUDING THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, TITLE, AND NON-INFRINGEMENT. WE DO NOT WARRANT THAT THE SERVICES WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED, TIMELY, SECURE, OR ERROR-FREE; THAT EVERY MESSAGE OR CALL WILL BE DELIVERED, ANSWERED, OR COMPLETED; THAT RESPONSE RATES WILL MEET ANY TARGET; OR THAT AI-GENERATED OUTPUT (INCLUDING VOICE-AGENT CONVERSATIONS AND DRAFT TRANSLATIONS) WILL BE ACCURATE OR COMPLETE. THE PLATFORM IS NOT A MEDICAL DEVICE, DOES NOT PROVIDE MEDICAL ADVICE, AND IS NOT AN EMERGENCY OR CRISIS SERVICE. NOTHING IN THE SERVICES CONSTITUTES LEGAL OR COMPLIANCE ADVICE, AND THE PLATFORM'S OUTREACH SAFEGUARDS DO NOT RELIEVE CUSTOMER OF ITS OWN OBLIGATION TO COMPLY WITH THE LAWS APPLICABLE TO ITS OUTREACH. SOME JURISDICTIONS DO NOT ALLOW THE EXCLUSION OF CERTAIN WARRANTIES, SO SOME OF THESE EXCLUSIONS MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU.
TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, IN NO EVENT WILL EITHER PARTY OR ITS OFFICERS, MEMBERS, EMPLOYEES, AGENTS, OR SUPPLIERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, OR FOR ANY LOSS OF PROFITS, REVENUE, DATA, OR GOODWILL, ARISING OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SERVICES OR THESE TERMS, WHETHER BASED IN CONTRACT, TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE), STRICT LIABILITY, OR ANY OTHER LEGAL THEORY, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.
TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, THE TOTAL AGGREGATE LIABILITY OF INTERVIEW SMILE LLC ARISING OUT OF OR RELATING TO THE SERVICES OR THESE TERMS WILL NOT EXCEED (A) FOR CLAIMS BY A CUSTOMER RELATING TO THE PLATFORM, THE GREATER OF THE FEES PAID BY CUSTOMER TO US IN THE TWELVE (12) MONTHS PRECEDING THE EVENT GIVING RISE TO THE CLAIM OR ONE HUNDRED U.S. DOLLARS (US$100); AND (B) FOR ALL OTHER CLAIMS, INCLUDING CLAIMS RELATING TO THE SITE, ONE HUNDRED U.S. DOLLARS (US$100).
THE LIMITATIONS IN THIS SECTION DO NOT APPLY TO (1) CUSTOMER'S INDEMNIFICATION OBLIGATIONS UNDER SECTIONS 8.5 AND 21; (2) CUSTOMER'S BREACH OF SECTION 8; (3) FEES DUE UNDER AN ORDER; (4) A PARTY'S GROSS NEGLIGENCE, FRAUD, OR WILLFUL MISCONDUCT; OR (5) ANY LIABILITY THAT CANNOT BE LIMITED UNDER APPLICABLE LAW. WHERE A BAA IS IN PLACE, NOTHING IN THIS SECTION LIMITS OBLIGATIONS THAT HIPAA IMPOSES DIRECTLY ON EITHER PARTY.
Customer (or, for Site-only visitors, you) agrees to defend, indemnify, and hold harmless Interview Smile LLC and its officers, members, employees, and agents from and against any claims, liabilities, damages, losses, and expenses (including reasonable attorneys' fees) arising out of or in any way connected with: (a) Customer Data, including claims that uploaded data was collected, uploaded, or used without the necessary rights, consents, or authorizations; (b) outreach initiated at Customer's direction, as further described in Section 8.5; (c) Customer's surveys, study conduct, or its relationship with its participants, including any claim by a Respondent relating to the study; (d) use of the Services in violation of these Terms or applicable law; or (e) Customer's violation of the rights of any third party. We will give prompt notice of any claim subject to indemnification, allow the indemnifying party to control the defense and settlement (provided any settlement fully releases us and admits no fault on our part), and reasonably cooperate at the indemnifying party's expense.
Please read this Section carefully. It affects your legal rights.
22.1 Informal resolution first. Before filing a claim, you agree to give us notice at legal@interviewsmile.com describing the dispute and to negotiate in good faith for 30 days. Most concerns can be resolved this way.
22.2 Agreement to arbitrate. Except as provided in Section 22.4, any dispute, claim, or controversy arising out of or relating to these Terms or the Services — including their formation, interpretation, breach, or termination, and including statutory claims — will be resolved by final and binding arbitration administered by JAMS under its Comprehensive Arbitration Rules and Procedures (or, for claims within its scope, its Streamlined Arbitration Rules) in effect when the arbitration is commenced. The Federal Arbitration Act governs the interpretation and enforcement of this Section. The arbitration will be conducted by a single arbitrator, in English, with its seat in San Francisco County, California; where the amount in controversy permits and a party requests it, the arbitration will be conducted by document submission or videoconference. The arbitrator has exclusive authority to resolve disputes about the interpretation, applicability, or enforceability of this arbitration agreement, except that a court will decide any dispute about the enforceability of the class action waiver in Section 22.3. Judgment on the award may be entered in any court of competent jurisdiction.
22.3 Class action and jury waiver. TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, EACH PARTY WAIVES THE RIGHT TO A TRIAL BY JURY AND THE RIGHT TO PARTICIPATE IN A CLASS, COLLECTIVE, CONSOLIDATED, OR REPRESENTATIVE ACTION. CLAIMS MAY BE BROUGHT ONLY IN AN INDIVIDUAL CAPACITY. The arbitrator may not consolidate claims of more than one party and may award relief only in favor of the individual party seeking relief. If the waiver in this Section 22.3 is held unenforceable as to a particular claim, then that claim (and only that claim) must proceed in court under Section 23, and this arbitration agreement will not apply to it.
22.4 Exceptions. Either party may (a) bring an individual claim in small-claims court for matters within that court's jurisdiction, and (b) seek temporary injunctive or other equitable relief in court to protect intellectual property, Confidential Information, or the security of the Services, pending arbitration. Nothing in this Section prevents a regulator from pursuing a claim, or either party from reporting to a government agency.
22.5 Fees. Payment of JAMS filing, administrative, and arbitrator fees will be governed by the applicable JAMS rules, including any rules on fee allocation for consumer claimants. Each party otherwise bears its own attorneys' fees and costs unless the arbitrator awards them under applicable law.
22.6 Opt-out. You may opt out of this arbitration agreement and class action waiver by emailing legal@interviewsmile.com within 30 days after first accepting these Terms, stating your (or your organization's) name and that you opt out of arbitration. Opting out does not affect any other provision of these Terms.
22.7 Time limit. To the extent permitted by applicable law, any claim arising out of or relating to the Services must be commenced within one (1) year after the claim accrues; otherwise it is permanently barred. This Section 22.7 does not apply where prohibited by law and does not shorten any non-waivable statutory limitations period.
These Terms and any dispute arising out of or relating to them or the Services are governed by the laws of the State of California, without regard to its conflict-of-law principles, except that the Federal Arbitration Act governs Section 22. For any dispute not subject to arbitration, the parties consent to the exclusive jurisdiction and venue of the state and federal courts located in San Francisco County, California, subject to any mandatory consumer-protection rights available to you under the law of your place of residence.
We may improve, modify, or discontinue features of the Services, provided that material reductions to the functionality of a launched study during its paid active window will be communicated to the affected Customer in advance where reasonably practicable. We may revise these Terms from time to time. When we do, we will update the "Last Updated" date above, and for material changes affecting Platform customers with an active Order we will provide reasonable advance notice by email or in-product notice. Changes apply prospectively; your continued use of the Services after changes become effective constitutes acceptance. If you do not agree to revised Terms, you must stop using the Services, and a Customer with an active Order may contact us regarding the remainder of its window. Changes to Section 22 do not apply to disputes of which we had written notice before the change.
These Terms, together with the Privacy Policy, the Patient Privacy Policy, any Order, and any BAA, constitute the entire agreement between you and Interview Smile LLC regarding the Services and supersede any prior agreements on that subject matter (except that a separately negotiated written agreement between Customer and Interview Smile LLC controls over these Terms to the extent of any conflict). If any provision of these Terms is found invalid or unenforceable, it will be enforced to the maximum extent permissible and the remaining provisions will remain in full force and effect. Our failure to enforce any right or provision is not a waiver. Neither party may assign these Terms without the other's prior written consent, except that we may assign them in connection with a merger, acquisition, or sale of all or substantially all of our assets, and Customer may assign them to a successor institution for the same study with notice to us. There are no third-party beneficiaries to these Terms. A Respondent who accesses the public survey page is bound by these Terms in connection with that use (including Sections 11, 12, 19, 20, 22, and 23) but acquires no other rights under these Terms, and nothing in these Terms creates any care, monitoring, or fiduciary relationship between Interview Smile LLC and any Respondent. Neither party will be liable for any failure or delay caused by circumstances beyond its reasonable control. Notices to us must be sent to legal@interviewsmile.com; notices to Customer may be sent to the account email addresses of its Authorized Users.
Questions about these Terms may be directed to legal@interviewsmile.com.
This Privacy Policy explains how Interview Smile LLC ("Interview Smile," "we," "us," or "our") collects, uses, discloses, and protects personal information in connection with the website located at securemedassist.com (the "Site") and the researcher-facing portions of the SecureMedAssist platform (the "Platform"). SecureMedAssist ("SMA") is a product of Interview Smile LLC. We are committed to handling information responsibly and transparently and to complying with applicable privacy and data protection laws in the United States and Canada.
If you are a patient or research participant who received a survey invitation by email, text message, or phone call, this Policy is not the main document for you — please read our Patient Privacy Policy, which describes in plain language how your information is handled.
You can contact us at any time about the way we handle your information — to ask questions, request access to or correction or deletion of your information, opt out of communications, or raise a concern. You can reach us at legal@interviewsmile.com.
We process personal information in three distinct roles:
No PHI or patient data is collected through the Site, and you must not submit any through the Site's forms.
We do not use analytics platforms, advertising trackers, social media pixels, or other third-party tracking scripts on the Site, and we do not collect information for behavioral advertising. We do not purchase personal information from data brokers.
We use the information described above to:
We do not sell or rent your information, and we do not share it with third parties for their own marketing purposes.
We share personal information only in the following limited circumstances:
We do not set advertising or analytics cookies. The Platform's sign-in flow uses session storage and authentication state strictly as necessary to keep you signed in securely; these are cleared when you close the tab. The Site loads web fonts from Google Fonts; when your browser requests these fonts, Google may receive your IP address and standard request information as a necessary part of delivering the fonts. Google does not receive any information you enter into our forms. The Site is delivered through a content delivery network (Cloudflare), which processes standard request metadata to serve pages; no form contents, authentication tokens, or patient data transit Cloudflare. No other third-party resources that receive personal information are embedded in the Site.
Customer organizations upload participant contact lists and collect survey responses through the Platform. For this Patient Data:
If a customer connects REDCap, SecureMedAssist uses the REDCap API only as directed by that customer to pull participant records into the Platform or push coded results back to the customer's REDCap project. Data in REDCap remains under the customer's REDCap environment, IRB, access controls, and retention policies.
We retain contact form submissions and related correspondence only as long as necessary to respond to your inquiry, maintain a reasonable record of our communications, and meet our legal and operational requirements. Researcher account records are retained while the account is active and for a reasonable period afterward for audit and legal purposes. Consent attestations and launch-review records are retained as audit records.
Patient Data is minimized at rest: participant contact information is permanently deleted as soon as that participant's outreach is complete, and remaining study data (survey responses and delivery records) is permanently deleted when the research team closes the study, or automatically 365 days after the last participant was added to a survey. Customer organizations are notified in advance of any inactivity-based deletion and may export their datasets at any time. Survey instruments (questions and structure, never patient data) are retained so study designs remain reproducible.
We maintain administrative, technical, and organizational safeguards designed to protect personal information against loss, misuse, and unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration, or destruction. These include encryption in transit (HTTPS) for all Services, storage of PHI exclusively in HIPAA-eligible cloud services under a BAA, credential-less service-to-service authentication using managed identities, role-based access controls, invitation-only account provisioning, and audit logging that excludes patient identifiers. No method of transmission or storage is completely secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security; we will provide breach notifications as required by applicable law and our BAAs.
Depending on your state of residence, you may have rights regarding your personal information, including the right to know what personal information we collect, to access it, to correct or update it, to request its deletion, and to data portability. We do not sell personal information and do not "share" it for cross-context behavioral advertising, as those terms are defined under the California Consumer Privacy Act and similar state laws, and we do not process personal information for targeted advertising or use automated decision-making that produces legal or similarly significant effects on you. Some information may be exempt from state privacy laws (for example, PHI governed by HIPAA). To exercise any right, contact us at legal@interviewsmile.com. We will respond within the time required by applicable law, may need to verify your identity before acting, and will not discriminate against you for exercising your rights. If we deny a request, we will explain why, and where state law provides an appeal process we will tell you how to appeal.
If you are in Canada, we handle your personal information in accordance with the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) and applicable provincial private-sector privacy laws, including Quebec's Act respecting the protection of personal information in the private sector (as amended by Law 25), and the Alberta and British Columbia Personal Information Protection Acts, to the extent they apply. You have the right to request access to and correction of your personal information, to withdraw consent (subject to legal or contractual restrictions and reasonable notice), and to ask questions about our policies and practices. Our contact for privacy matters is legal@interviewsmile.com. If you are not satisfied with our response, you may complain to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada or your provincial privacy commissioner (in Quebec, the Commission d'accès à l'information).
We are based in the United States, and the information we collect is processed and stored in the United States (our production infrastructure is located in U.S. data-center regions). If you access the Services from Canada or elsewhere outside the United States, you understand that your information will be transferred to, processed, and stored in the United States, where laws may differ from those in your jurisdiction, and may be accessible to U.S. authorities under applicable law. We protect transferred information as described in this Policy regardless of where it is processed.
We use the contact details you provide primarily to respond to your inquiry and to provide the Services. If we send you informational or marketing communications about SMA, you can opt out at any time using the unsubscribe mechanism in the message or by contacting us at legal@interviewsmile.com, and — for commercial electronic messages to Canadian recipients — we comply with Canada's Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL), including identification and unsubscribe requirements. Patient survey outreach is not marketing and is governed by the Patient Privacy Policy and our agreements with customer organizations.
The Site and the researcher-facing Platform are intended for business and professional audiences and are not directed to children under 18. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children through them. Where a customer's IRB-approved study lawfully involves minors, the customer is responsible for parental or guardian consent; survey outreach data for such studies is Patient Data handled under Section 7. If you believe a child has provided us personal information through the Site, contact us and we will delete it.
We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices or for legal, operational, or regulatory reasons. When we do, we will revise the "Last Updated" date above, and for material changes we will provide more prominent notice (for example, by email to account holders). We encourage you to review this Policy periodically.
For privacy questions, requests, or complaints, contact us at legal@interviewsmile.com. We take concerns seriously and will work to resolve them. If you are located in a jurisdiction with a privacy regulator or data protection authority and are not satisfied with our response, you may have the right to lodge a complaint with that authority.
This notice is for you if you received a survey invitation by email or text message, got an automated phone call about a survey, or filled out a survey on a page that says "Powered by SecureMedAssist." It explains, in plain language, who we are, what information we have about you, how we protect it, and how you can stop hearing from us. This notice is provided for transparency; it is not a contract, and it does not replace the privacy notices or consent forms given to you by your healthcare provider or research team.
SecureMedAssist is a survey platform operated by Interview Smile LLC. A research team or healthcare organization you have a relationship with (the "research team") is running a study and asked us to invite you to complete a survey. The research team provided your name and contact information to us; we did not buy it, find it online, or collect it from anyone else. The research team confirmed to us that you agreed to be contacted about the study — typically as part of a consent form you signed — and the study itself, including its consent process, remains the research team's responsibility. If you have questions about the study, the best contact is the research team named in your invitation; replying to the invitation email reaches them.
We use your information for exactly one purpose: running the survey for your research team. That means sending you a limited number of invitations and reminders, collecting your answers, and giving your answers back to the research team that invited you. Our messages are deliberately minimal — they are limited to your first name, the research team's name, the survey's title, a short message written by the research team, and your survey link. They never contain your medical details, test results, or record numbers.
We never sell your information, use it for advertising or marketing, use it to train artificial-intelligence models, or share it with anyone other than the research team that invited you, the technology vendors that help us deliver messages and calls (who are bound by strict confidentiality and, where required, healthcare data agreements), and authorities where the law requires it. In particular, we never share your mobile phone number or your text-messaging (SMS) opt-in or consent with any third party or affiliate for their own marketing.
If your research team enables it and you have not completed the survey, you may receive an automated phone call offering to take the survey by phone. Here is exactly how that call behaves:
About our text messages. If your research team uses text messaging, SecureMedAssist sends automated survey invitations and reminders on its behalf from a toll-free number — about 1–3 messages per survey. Message and data rates may apply. Reply STOP to any text to opt out, or HELP for help. Your mobile number and your text-messaging consent are used only to deliver these survey messages and are never shared with third parties for their own marketing.
Outreach is limited by design — no more than two emails and one text message (or, if the study sends an optional reminder to finish a survey you started but didn't complete, up to three emails and two text messages), and two call attempts per survey round. You can stop it entirely at any time, for free:
Opting out of the survey has no effect on the healthcare or services you receive. Completing the survey also stops all reminders automatically.
Your information is stored in HIPAA-eligible cloud services in the United States, covered by healthcare data agreements (business associate agreements), and encrypted in transit. Access is restricted to the research team that invited you and the limited platform operations needed to run the service. Your survey link uses a private random identifier; our messages never include medical details; and our system logs are designed never to contain your name, contact details, or answers.
Your contact information (name, email, phone) is permanently deleted as soon as your participation in the survey is complete — when you finish it, when delivery attempts are exhausted, or when you opt out. Your survey answers are deleted when the research team closes the study, and in any case automatically after a year of inactivity. The research team exports the study's results before then; what they retain afterward is governed by their own policies and your consent form. If you opt out, we stop contacting you and remove your contact details right away.
Because we process your information on behalf of your research team, the research team (and its institution) is the primary contact for requests about your data — for example, to see your information, correct it, have it deleted, or withdraw from the study. Their contact information is in your invitation and your consent form. You can also contact us directly at legal@interviewsmile.com, and we will route your request to the right place and support it. If your information is protected health information under HIPAA, you also have rights under HIPAA (such as access and amendment) that you can exercise through your healthcare provider or the research team's institution. Depending on where you live, you may have additional rights under U.S. state privacy laws or, in Canada, under PIPEDA and provincial privacy laws, including the right to complain to your privacy regulator.
Surveys are not monitored in real time and are not a way to reach your doctor or research team about an urgent issue. If you are experiencing a medical emergency, call 911 (or your local emergency number). If you are in emotional distress or having thoughts of self-harm, call or text 988 (Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, available in the United States and Canada).
Survey invitations are sent only to individuals whose contact information a research team provided under its study's consent process. Where a study lawfully involves minors, the research team is responsible for obtaining parental or guardian consent in accordance with its IRB approval and applicable law. If you believe a child received outreach in error, contact us at legal@interviewsmile.com and we will stop outreach and investigate.
We may update this notice from time to time. When we do, we will revise the "Last Updated" date above. Material changes will be reflected on this page before they take effect.
For any question, request, or concern about your information, contact us at legal@interviewsmile.com. For questions about the study itself, contact the research team named in your invitation.