Policy

1. What Back Again is (and is not)

Back Again is an online educational tool about back pain. It uses your answers to standardized questionnaires and history questions to prepare a plain-language educational program that you can discuss with your own healthcare provider.

The free Back Again Basics programs, the free lessons and exercise library, and our emails are general education too. Sections 2, 3 and 4 apply to them in the same way.

Back Again does not:

• Provide medical diagnosis.
• Provide medical treatment.
• Replace an in-person or virtual assessment with a licensed health professional.
• Create a doctor-patient, physiotherapist-patient, or other clinical relationship.

Mitch Whittal, PhD reviews your answers and your program before it's published to you. That review is educational. It isn't a medical assessment, and it isn't done by a doctor or other regulated health professional. Anything you receive (including scores, summaries and suggestions) may contain errors, omissions or outdated information.

2. This is not medical advice

Nothing in this assessment, the resulting program, or any related emails should be taken as medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment.

You must not use Back Again:

• To decide on starting, stopping, or changing any medication.
• To decide whether to have or delay surgery or other procedures.
• As your only source of information when making decisions about your health.

You must always speak with your own doctor, physiotherapist, chiropractor, nurse practitioner, or other qualified health professional before acting on anything you read here.

3. Emergency and "red flag" symptoms: do not use this service

Back Again is not designed for emergencies or serious, rapidly changing symptoms.

If you have any of the following, you should stop now, not complete this assessment, and instead seek urgent or emergency medical care right away (for example, call 911 or go to the nearest emergency department or urgent care clinic):

• New or quickly worsening loss of bowel or bladder control (trouble starting or stopping urination, leaking, or not knowing when you need to go).
• Numbness or loss of feeling in the groin, genitals, or "saddle" area (the area that would touch a bicycle seat).
• New or rapidly worsening weakness in one or both legs, trouble lifting your feet, or difficulty walking that seems to be getting worse.
• Back pain with fever, feeling very unwell, or recent serious infection.
• Back pain after a major fall, car accident, or other serious trauma.
• Back pain in someone with a history of cancer, unexplained weight loss, night sweats, or feeling generally very unwell.
• Any other symptom that feels like an emergency or makes you worry something is seriously wrong.

If you are unsure whether your symptoms are urgent, you should contact your local emergency services, urgent care clinic, nurse line, or primary care provider instead of relying on this assessment.

4. Your responsibilities as a user

By using Back Again, you agree that:

• You will not rely on Back Again as your only source of health information.
• You will not ignore or delay seeking medical care because of something you read in a Back Again program or email.
• You will consult a qualified healthcare provider before making any changes to your activity, exercise, or treatment plan based on this service.
• You will seek urgent or emergency care if you experience any of the red-flag symptoms listed above, or if your condition suddenly worsens.
• You understand that Back Again cannot see you, examine you, or access your full medical history, and therefore cannot identify or rule out serious conditions.

You accept full responsibility for any decisions you make about your health, including decisions made after reading Back Again materials.

5. What information we collect

We collect what you choose to give us, plus a few technical details. What that is depends on which parts of Back Again you use.

The paid assessment (Premium and Coaching)

• Your name and email address.
• Your age, sex (as you report it), and general activity level or occupation.
• Your back pain history: when it started, where it is, what makes it worse or better, how it affects your day, and your goals.
• Other health conditions you choose to share, such as obesity, sleep problems, diabetes, depression or anxiety, pelvic floor issues, other injuries, or disabilities.
• Your answers to two standard questionnaires: the Roland-Morris Disability Questionnaire (RMDQ) and the Back-PAQ.
• Your answers to a few movement questions, for example whether bending or sitting brings on your pain.
• Anything you type into the open boxes, including any special accommodations you ask for.
• Which plan you bought.

Your Custom Rehab Program (the app you log in to)

• Your login email. You log in with a one-time code or link sent to that address, and a cookie keeps you logged in.
• Your program: your pain pattern, your sessions, and any changes or notes Mitch adds for you.
• Which sessions you complete, and when. Some details, like the sets you tick off during a session, are also saved on your own device.
• Your weekly check-ins: your pain level, sleep, stress, any flare-ups, what's improved, and any notes you add.
• Messages between you and Mitch.
• Your answers to our feedback survey, if you fill it in.
• For Coaching, your call bookings: the time, the video link, and any notes.
• Notes Mitch makes while reviewing your answers and preparing your program.

The free quiz, free programs and emails

• The quiz asks only for your email address. We keep it with your quiz result (your pain pattern) and a few of your answers, so the emails we send fit your pattern.
• The newsletter asks only for your email address.
• The free Back Again Basics programs don't need an account. Your progress is saved on your own device, and we never receive it.
• Our email service can tell us when an email we send you is delivered, opened or clicked, or if it bounces. We keep that record.

Payments, messages to us, and technical details

• Stripe handles every payment on its own secure page. We never see or store your full card number. Stripe shares your name, email, the amount, the billing details it needs to work out sales tax, and basic card details such as the card type and last four digits.
• When you buy, we also record which ad or campaign brought you to the site, if any (Section 12).
• Emails you send us, and messages from our support form, arrive in our email inbox.
• Like most websites, our host keeps short-lived technical logs, such as your IP address and browser type, to keep the site running and secure.

Please don't share information about other identifiable people unless you have their permission.

6. How we use your information

We use your information to:

• Prepare your personalized educational program, and let Mitch review it before it's published to you.
• Calculate and explain your questionnaire scores (for example, your RMDQ score or your Back-PAQ result).
• Tailor the general information and exercise suggestions in your program.
• Run your Custom Rehab Program account: log you in, show your program and progress, and keep track of your weekly check-ins for the 12-week guarantee (Section 11).
• Send you emails about your program and check-ins, our feedback survey, and the newsletter if you signed up (Section 13).
• Reply to messages you send Mitch, and book Coaching calls.
• Improve and monitor the service (for example, anonymous statistics on how many assessments are completed or which features are used).
• Keep payment and tax records.

We don't sell your personal information, and we don't share it with employers, insurers or marketers. We share it only with the service providers in Section 7, which handle it for us, or when the law requires it. The one exception is the ad and analytics tools on our general pages: Meta and Google receive details of your visit and can use them under their own terms. They never run on the quiz, the assessment, checkout or the free program pages (Section 12).

Your data may be de-identified (for example, with names and email addresses removed) and combined with data from other users to create aggregated datasets. These de-identified and aggregated datasets may be used to help improve the service, for education or research, or may be shared with or licensed to trusted third parties such as research groups or organizations interested in better understanding back pain. These datasets are not intended to identify you personally.

7. Our service providers and where your data may be processed

These are the outside services that handle personal information for us:

• Supabase: our database and login system. It holds your assessment answers, your Custom Rehab Program account, progress, check-ins and messages, and quiz and newsletter sign-ups. It's hosted in Canada.
• Vercel: hosts our website and app. It also counts page views and three anonymous steps (Section 12).
• Stripe: handles payments for Premium, Coaching and Pay what you can (Section 14).
• Resend: sends our emails, including your login codes, and holds our newsletter list.
• Google: our business email inbox (Gmail), where emails and support messages you send us arrive. Google Analytics also runs on our general pages, never on our health pages (Section 12).
• Cal.com: books Coaching calls. It receives the name, email and any notes you enter when you book.
• Meta: its Pixel runs on our general pages, never on our health pages (Section 12).
• Trustpilot: shows our reviews on the home page, and handles any review you choose to leave there.
• Zernio: our social media tool. If you comment on one of our Instagram posts, it sees your username and your comment, and it may send you an automatic reply.
• Sanity: stores our articles and newsletter issues. It doesn't hold customer information.

These service providers are required, through their own terms and privacy practices, to protect your information and keep it confidential.

Our main database is in Canada. Most of the other providers store or process data in the United States or other countries, where privacy and data-protection laws may differ from those in your home country. By using Back Again, you consent to this cross-border storage and processing.

8. Data retention and deletion

Back Again will retain your information for as long as reasonably needed to:

• Provide your assessment and any follow-up features you have paid for, and
• Maintain basic records of how the service is used.

If you would like your personally identifiable assessment data to be deleted:

• Email assessments@backagainassessments.com. This also closes your Custom Rehab Program account.
• Once we can reasonably verify your identity, we will aim to delete your identifiable assessment data from our active systems within approximately 90 days of your request, except where we are legally required or permitted to keep certain records (for example, for tax or accounting purposes).

De-identified or aggregated data (which does not contain your name, email, or other direct identifiers) may be retained to help improve the service and may also be used for education, research, or shared with or licensed to trusted third parties, provided it is not intended to identify you personally.

9. Age and eligibility

Back Again is intended only for adults aged 18 years or older.

By using this service, you confirm that:

• You are at least 18 years old, and
• You are using this service for yourself, not on behalf of a minor.

At this time, Back Again is not designed for minors and does not collect or rely on parental or guardian consent workflows.

10. Limitations of the service and liability

Back Again is provided on an "as-is" and "as-available" basis.

To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law:

• Back Again makes no warranties or guarantees about the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any information provided.
• Back Again does not guarantee that the service will identify all important health issues, risk factors, or red-flag symptoms.
• Back Again, its founder, and any contractors or service providers will not be liable for any direct, indirect, incidental, special, or consequential loss, injury, or damage that may result from:
  • Your use of this website or service.
  • Your reliance on any information, program, or suggestion generated by this service.
  • Any delay or failure in receiving your program or emails.
  • Any errors, omissions, or technical issues.

Using this service does not replace the need for care from qualified healthcare professionals. If you do not agree with these limitations, you must not use Back Again.

11. Satisfaction guarantee and refunds

We stand behind Premium with a 12-week satisfaction guarantee. The terms in this section are the complete terms of that guarantee.

By plan:

• Premium (and Self-Serve plans bought before it was retired): If you complete your weekly check-ins for the full 12 weeks and still have not noticed a meaningful improvement in your pain or in what you are able to do, we will refund what you paid for your assessment plan in full.
• Coaching: Coaching terms, including any refund or guarantee, are agreed with you in writing before you start.

To qualify, you must:

• Submit a weekly check-in every week for all 12 weeks (12 check-ins in total), in your Custom Rehab Program or through the link in your weekly reminder email. Completing these check-ins is how we confirm you engaged with the program, and it is a required condition of the guarantee.
• Request your refund within 14 days after your 12-week period ends, by emailing assessments@backagainassessments.com from the email address you purchased with.

“Meaningful improvement” means your own honest judgment that your back pain, or what you are able to do day to day, has improved in a way that matters to you. You do not need to prove a specific score or test result.

Limits of this guarantee:

• This is a satisfaction guarantee about your purchase only. It is not a promise of any specific health outcome, and it does not change or override the medical disclaimers and limitations elsewhere in this Policy, including Sections 2 and 10.
• The refund covers the full price you paid for your assessment plan.
• The guarantee does not apply if the required weekly check-ins were not completed, or if a payment dispute or chargeback is filed instead of contacting us first.
• Approved refunds are returned to your original payment method, normally within 14 days of approval.

By purchasing, you agree that completing the weekly check-ins is a condition of this guarantee and that this section is the entire agreement between you and Back Again regarding refunds and the satisfaction guarantee.

12. Website visits, analytics and ad tools

We count visits to our website with Vercel Web Analytics. It doesn't use cookies and isn't linked to any ad network, so it can't follow you around the web. For each page view it records the page address, the website you came from, and general details such as your country, browser and type of device. Before anything is sent, our site cuts off any part of the address after a "?" or "#", because that part can hold things like an email address or quiz answers. We only see totals, such as how many people opened a page in a week. It also counts three steps in the same cookie-free way: finishing the quiz, starting checkout and buying a plan (for a purchase, it also notes whether it was Premium or Coaching). These counts don't include your answers, pain pattern or any other health details, your name or your email address.

Our general pages, such as the home page, the plans page, the About page and our articles, also use Meta Pixel and Google Analytics. These tools use cookies to count visits and to show us which ads bring people to the site. On these pages, our site removes any pain pattern from the page address before the tools load, and we've turned off the Pixel's automatic tracking of button clicks.

Meta Pixel and Google Analytics never run on our health pages. These are the quiz (/tools/back-pain-quiz), the assessment (/assessment), the checkout pages (/checkout), and the free program pages (/free-program and every web address that starts with it). The lessons (/learn), the exercise library (/exercise-library) and the /thanks page you see after a Pay what you can payment don't load them either. So Meta Pixel and Google Analytics don't record that you opened these pages, took the quiz, started an assessment or bought a plan. When you move between a general page and one of these pages, your browser loads a fresh page, so the tools from the general page don't come along. Vercel Web Analytics still counts visits to these pages, in the cookie-free way described above.

We also set one cookie of our own, kept for 90 days, that remembers which ad or campaign first brought you here. We use it to see which ads lead to sign-ups and purchases. It works on the health pages too, and we don't send it to Meta or Google.

The check-in and feedback pages you open from our emails, and the pages you use after logging in to your Custom Rehab Program, load none of these tools.

The home page also shows a Trustpilot review box, which loads from Trustpilot's servers.

You can block cookies and these tools in your browser settings or with an ad blocker. The site still works if you do.

13. Newsletter

You can sign up for the weekly Back Again newsletter about back pain on our newsletter page. Giving your email to see your quiz result also signs you up, and the quiz says so before you submit. Either way, we only ask for your email address. New subscribers get a few welcome emails first, and quiz takers get a short series of emails about their pain pattern and our programs.

Our emails come from Mitch at Back Again Assessments. Every newsletter and marketing email has an unsubscribe link, and you can also stop them by emailing assessments@backagainassessments.com. When you unsubscribe, we stop within 10 business days, and usually much sooner.

We don't sell your email address or share it with marketers. Section 8 explains how to ask us to delete it. We may keep a record of your consent and of your opt-out, because the law expects us to be able to show both.

15. Your privacy rights and how to reach us

Back Again Assessments follows Canada's federal privacy law for businesses, the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA). In practice, this means:

• We collect only what we need for the purposes on this page, and we ask for your consent.
• You can ask what personal information we hold about you, and ask us to correct anything that is wrong.
• You can withdraw your consent at any time, for example by unsubscribing from our emails. We may still need to keep some records, such as payment records for tax purposes.
• The person responsible for privacy at Back Again Assessments is our founder, Mitch Whittal, PhD. Send any privacy question or request to assessments@backagainassessments.com, or by mail to Back Again Assessments, 1025 King St E, Unit 107 #1773, Cambridge, ON N3H 3P5, Canada. We aim to reply within 30 days.
• If you are not satisfied with our answer, you can complain to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada at priv.gc.ca.