Privacy, Terms & Disclaimers

Tether Research Group is a clinical trial information and matching service. We provide educational content about clinical research and help connect interested individuals with research sites conducting clinical trials in North Carolina and South Carolina.

We are not a healthcare provider. We do not provide medical advice, diagnose conditions, prescribe treatments, conduct clinical trials, or deliver any form of healthcare. We do not bill insurance companies or process health insurance claims. Nothing on this website should be interpreted as medical advice or a substitute for professional medical care.

We are not a HIPAA-covered entity. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) applies to healthcare providers, health plans, and healthcare clearinghouses. As an information and matching service, we are not subject to HIPAA. However, we recognize that some of the information you share with us may be sensitive in nature, and we are committed to protecting it with appropriate safeguards as described in this policy.

We are subject to the Federal Trade Commission Act (Section 5), the FTC Health Breach Notification Rule, the CAN-SPAM Act, and applicable state privacy and consumer protection laws in North Carolina and South Carolina. We take our obligations under these laws seriously.

We collect information that you voluntarily provide to us through forms on our website. We collect different levels of information depending on which form you use:

Newsletter Signup

When you subscribe to our newsletter or email updates, we collect your name, email address, city or region of interest, and general areas of interest (such as “Mental Health” or “Dermatology”). This information is used to send you relevant clinical trial updates and educational content.

Condition Interest & Study Screener Forms

When you express interest in a specific therapeutic area or complete a study screener, we may collect your name, email address, phone number, city, general condition interest area, age range or date of birth, whether you are currently in treatment, how well your current treatment is working, how long you have been managing your condition, and whether you are currently seeing a doctor for the condition.

Some study screener forms also collect self-reported health information, including the names of medications you currently take, diagnoses you have received, and commonly known health measurements (such as A1c or blood pressure readings). We collect this information solely to determine whether you may be a match for a specific study, and we treat all of it as sensitive data as described in this policy.

Automatically Collected Information

When you visit our website, we may automatically collect certain technical information including your IP address, browser type, device type, operating system, referring URL, pages visited, time spent on pages, and general geographic location (city-level, not precise). This information is collected through cookies and similar technologies as described in Section 7 of this policy.

To match you with clinical trial opportunities. We use your location, condition interest, treatment status, and self-reported health information to identify clinical trials that may be relevant to you and to notify you when new matching studies become available.

To send you email communications. If you subscribe to our newsletter or submit a form, we will send you clinical trial updates, educational content about clinical research, and information about studies recruiting in your area. Every email includes an unsubscribe option.

To improve our website. We use automatically collected technical data to understand how visitors use our site, identify issues, and improve the user experience.

To communicate with you. If you contact us directly, we use your information to respond to your questions or requests.

To analyze aggregate trends. We may use de-identified, aggregate data to understand general patterns in clinical trial interest across regions and conditions. This data cannot be traced back to any individual.

We do not sell your personal information. We have never sold personal information and have no plans to do so.

We do not share your information with research sites, pharmaceutical companies, or any third party without your explicit, informed consent. If we identify a clinical trial that may be a good fit for you, we will present the opportunity to you and let you decide whether to contact the research site. We will not send your name, contact information, or any health-related data to a research site unless you specifically authorize us to do so.

We may share your information in the following limited circumstances:

Service providers. We use third-party services to operate our website and manage communications. Currently, we use MailerLite for email marketing, FormHippo for secure collection and storage of form and screener data, and MailHippo for secure email delivery of study match communications. These service providers have access to your information only to perform services on our behalf and are contractually obligated to protect it. We do not permit our service providers to use your data for their own marketing purposes.

Legal requirements. We may disclose your information if required to do so by law, regulation, legal process, or governmental request, or if we believe disclosure is necessary to protect our rights, your safety, or the safety of others.

Business transfers. If Tether Research Group is involved in a merger, acquisition, or sale of assets, your information may be transferred as part of that transaction. We will notify you via email or a prominent notice on our website before your information becomes subject to a different privacy policy.

Encryption in transit. Our website uses SSL/TLS encryption (HTTPS) to protect data transmitted between your browser and our servers. Any information you submit through our forms is encrypted during transmission.

Access controls. Access to your personal information is restricted to authorized personnel who need it to perform their job functions.

Secure service providers. Our service providers (MailerLite, FormHippo, and MailHippo) maintain industry-standard security practices including encrypted data storage, access logging, and regular security assessments.

Data minimization. We collect only the information reasonably necessary for the purposes described in this policy. Our study screener forms collect self-reported medication use, diagnoses, and commonly known health measurements (such as A1c or blood pressure readings) for study matching, and we protect this information as sensitive data. We do not collect Social Security numbers, insurance information, or detailed medical records through our website forms.

No method of transmission or storage is 100% secure. While we strive to use commercially reasonable means to protect your information, we cannot guarantee absolute security. If we become aware of a security breach affecting your personal information, we will notify you and any applicable regulatory authorities as required by the FTC Health Breach Notification Rule and applicable state laws.

Access. You may request a copy of the personal information we hold about you at any time by contacting us at the email address below.

Correction. You may request that we correct any inaccurate personal information we hold about you.

Deletion. You may request that we delete your personal information from our systems. Upon receiving a verified deletion request, we will delete your data from our active systems within 30 days. Some information may persist in backups for a limited period but will not be used for any purpose. To request deletion, email us at privacy@tetherresearchgroup.com with the subject line “Data Deletion Request.”

Unsubscribe. Every marketing email we send includes a clear unsubscribe link. You may opt out of email communications at any time by clicking “Unsubscribe” at the bottom of any email. We will process your unsubscribe request within 10 business days as required by the CAN-SPAM Act.

Withdraw consent. If you previously consented to us sharing your information with a research site or other third party, you may withdraw that consent at any time by contacting us. Withdrawal of consent does not affect the lawfulness of any processing that occurred before the withdrawal.

---

Our website uses cookies and similar technologies to improve your browsing experience and to understand how visitors use our site.

Essential cookies. These are necessary for the website to function properly, including session management and security features. These cannot be disabled.

Analytics cookies. We may use tools such as Google Analytics to collect anonymous usage data about how visitors interact with our website. This data includes pages visited, time on site, and general geographic location. Google Analytics does not collect your name, email, or any information you submit in forms. You can opt out of Google Analytics by installing the Google Analytics Opt-Out Browser Add-On.

We do not use tracking pixels, retargeting cookies, or advertising cookies that share your browsing behavior with third-party advertising networks. We do not use Meta Pixel, Google Ads remarketing tags, or similar advertising technologies that could link your visit to our website with your identity on other platforms. We recognize that visiting a website about clinical trials for a health condition is inherently sensitive, and we do not share that browsing behavior with advertisers.

You can control cookies through your browser settings. Most browsers allow you to block or delete cookies. Please note that blocking essential cookies may affect the functionality of our website.

Our website contains links to third-party websites, including research site websites, ClinicalTrials.gov, and other external resources. This Privacy Policy applies only to tetherresearchgroup.com. We are not responsible for the privacy practices of third-party websites. We encourage you to review the privacy policies of any external site before submitting personal information.

When you click a link to a research site or external resource, you are leaving our website and entering a site governed by that organization’s own privacy policy and practices.

Our website and services are not directed to individuals under the age of 18, and our forms must be completed by an adult. We do not knowingly collect personal information directly from children under 18. If you are under 18, please do not submit any information through our website. For clinical trials that enroll participants under 18, a parent or legal guardian who is 18 or older may submit an interest form on behalf of their child; in that case, the contact information provided must be the parent’s or guardian’s, and any health information about the child is provided by the parent or guardian and is protected as sensitive data under this policy. If a parent or guardian becomes aware that their child has provided us with personal information directly, please contact us at privacy@tetherresearchgroup.com and we will promptly delete the information.

Newsletter subscribers: We retain your information for as long as your subscription is active. If you unsubscribe, we will delete your information from our active mailing lists within 30 days. A record of your unsubscribe request may be retained to ensure we do not contact you again.

Condition interest form submissions: We retain this information for up to 24 months from the date of submission, after which it is deleted unless you have actively engaged with our communications during that period. You may request earlier deletion at any time.

Technical and analytics data: Automatically collected browsing data is retained in aggregate, anonymized form and cannot be traced to individual users.

North Carolina and South Carolina residents have rights under their respective state consumer protection laws. If you believe your personal information has been misused or that we have violated our obligations under this policy, you may file a complaint with the North Carolina Attorney General’s Consumer Protection Division or the South Carolina Department of Consumer Affairs, in addition to contacting us directly.

If you are a California resident, you may have additional rights under the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) and the California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA), including the right to know what personal information we collect, the right to delete your personal information, the right to opt out of the sale of personal information (we do not sell personal information), and the right to non-discrimination for exercising your privacy rights. To exercise any of these rights, contact us at privacy@tetherresearchgroup.com.

If you are a resident of Virginia, Colorado, Connecticut, Utah, Texas, Oregon, Montana, or any other state with a comprehensive consumer privacy law, you may have additional rights regarding your personal data. We honor all applicable state privacy rights. Please contact us at privacy@tetherresearchgroup.com to exercise any rights available to you under your state’s law.

Some of the information you provide through our forms may relate to your health or medical conditions. Depending on the form, this may include general interest categories, self-reported treatment status and response, condition duration, age range or date of birth, self-reported medication use (including specific medication names), self-reported diagnoses, and commonly known health measurements (such as A1c or blood pressure readings) that you choose to share for study matching. We do not collect detailed medical records, diagnosis codes, Social Security numbers, insurance information, or physician names or treatment facility details through our website forms.

We treat all health-related data you share with us as sensitive. We will never use your health-related information for advertising purposes, share it with advertisers or data brokers, use it to make decisions about your eligibility for insurance, employment, or credit, or disclose it to any third party without your explicit consent.

We comply with the CAN-SPAM Act. All marketing emails we send will clearly identify Tether Research Group as the sender, include our physical mailing address, include a clear and conspicuous unsubscribe mechanism, and honor unsubscribe requests within 10 business days. We will not use deceptive subject lines, and we will not sell or transfer your email address to third parties for their marketing purposes.

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices, our services, or applicable laws. If we make material changes, we will notify you by posting a prominent notice on our website and, where possible, by sending an email to the address associated with your account.

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, want to exercise any of your rights described above, or have concerns about how your information is being handled, please contact us:

Tether Research Group
Email: privacy@tetherresearchgroup.com
Website: tetherresearchgroup.com

For data deletion requests, please email privacy@tetherresearchgroup.com with the subject line “Data Deletion Request” and include the name and email address associated with your account. We will respond to all requests within 30 days.