Privacy Policy

MFTFinder.com ("MFTFinder," "we," "us," or "our") is committed to protecting your privacy. This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, disclose, and safeguard your information when you visit our website at www.mftfinder.com, use our therapist directory, or interact with any of our related services (collectively, the "Service"). Please read this policy carefully. If you do not agree with the terms of this Privacy Policy, please do not access or use the Service.

Important Notice: MFTFinder is a therapist directory service, not a healthcare provider. Information submitted through MFTFinder is not protected health information (PHI) under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). Your actual healthcare relationship and communications occur directly with the therapist you engage, not with MFTFinder.

1. Information We Collect

Information You Provide Directly

We collect information you voluntarily provide when you use MFTFinder, including:

Account registration information: If you create an account (for therapists or registered users), we collect your name, email address, password, and professional credentials as applicable.
Search queries: Location inputs, specialty preferences, insurance provider selections, and other search parameters you enter when looking for a therapist.
Contact form submissions: Your name, email address, phone number (if provided), and message content when you use our contact forms or inquiry features.
Therapist profile information: If you are a licensed therapist registering a listing, we collect your professional information including name, license number, license type, state of licensure, practice address, specialty areas, insurance panels, and profile photo.
Communications with us: Emails, support requests, and other messages you send to MFTFinder.
Newsletter and marketing opt-ins: Your email address if you subscribe to our newsletter or marketing communications.

Information Collected Automatically

When you visit or use our Service, we automatically collect certain technical information through cookies, web beacons, and similar technologies:

Log data: Your IP address, browser type, operating system, referring URLs, pages viewed, time spent on pages, and links clicked.
Device information: Device type, screen resolution, and hardware model.
Location data: General geographic location inferred from your IP address. We do not collect precise GPS location unless you explicitly grant permission.
Usage data: Search patterns, filter selections, and therapist profiles viewed, used in aggregate to improve our directory.
Cookie and tracking data: As further described in Section 4 below.

Information from Third Parties

We may receive information about you from third parties, including:

State licensing boards and professional associations, used to verify therapist credentials.
Analytics providers who help us understand how users interact with our Service.
Search engines and referral sources that indicate how you found MFTFinder.

2. How We Use Your Information

We use the information we collect for the following purposes:

To power and improve our search: Processing your location, specialty, and insurance inputs to return relevant therapist listings.
To operate and maintain the Service: Managing accounts, authenticating users, and providing technical support.
To communicate with you: Sending transactional emails (account confirmations, password resets), and — where you have opted in — newsletters, product updates, and promotional communications. You may opt out of non-transactional communications at any time.
To verify therapist credentials: Confirming licensure status and professional standing for therapists listed in our directory.
To analyze and improve our Service: Using aggregated, de-identified usage data to identify trends, fix bugs, improve search relevance, and develop new features.
To ensure safety and security: Detecting fraud, abuse, spam, and violations of our Terms of Service.
To comply with legal obligations: Responding to lawful requests from governmental authorities, court orders, and other legal processes.
To enforce our agreements: Including our Terms of Service and this Privacy Policy.

We do not sell your personal data. MFTFinder does not sell, rent, or trade your personal information to third parties for their own marketing purposes. Our business model is based on therapist listings and premium directory features, not on monetizing user data.

We do not share your personal information with third parties except in the following limited circumstances:

Service Providers

We work with trusted third-party service providers who help us operate the Service. These providers have access to your information only as needed to perform specific functions on our behalf and are contractually prohibited from using it for other purposes. Categories of service providers include:

Cloud hosting and infrastructure providers
Email delivery services
Analytics and performance monitoring services
Customer support tools
Payment processors (for therapist subscription fees)

Business Transfers

If MFTFinder is involved in a merger, acquisition, asset sale, or similar transaction, your information may be transferred as part of that transaction. We will provide notice before your information is transferred and becomes subject to a different privacy policy.

Legal Requirements

We may disclose your information when required to do so by law, or when we believe in good faith that disclosure is necessary to: (a) comply with a subpoena, court order, or other legal process; (b) protect the safety, rights, or property of MFTFinder, our users, or the public; or (c) detect, prevent, or address fraud, security, or technical issues.

With Your Consent

We may share your information in other ways if you provide explicit consent to do so.

4. Cookies and Tracking

MFTFinder uses cookies and similar tracking technologies to enhance your experience on our Service. Cookies are small data files stored on your device that help us recognize you and remember your preferences.

Types of Cookies We Use

Essential cookies: Required for the Service to function. These enable core functionality such as user authentication and search preferences. You cannot opt out of these without disabling our Service.
Analytics cookies: We use tools such as Google Analytics to understand how visitors interact with our site. This data is aggregated and used only to improve our Service. Google Analytics may collect your IP address.
Functional cookies: These remember your preferences such as location defaults and search filter settings between visits.
Marketing cookies: We may use third-party advertising cookies to serve relevant advertisements on other websites. These cookies track your browsing activity across sites.

Your Cookie Choices

You can manage or disable cookies through your browser settings. Most browsers allow you to refuse new cookies, accept or reject specific cookies, and delete existing cookies. Note that disabling certain cookies may affect the functionality of our Service. For Google Analytics opt-out specifically, you may use the Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on.

We honor Do Not Track (DNT) signals where technically feasible. However, because there is no uniform industry standard for DNT compliance, we cannot guarantee that all DNT signals will be honored by all third-party service providers integrated into our platform.

5. Therapist Listings and Profiles

Therapist profile information — including name, license credentials, practice location, specialty areas, session types, and contact information — is submitted by therapists themselves and is intentionally made publicly visible in our directory. This information is designed to be indexed by search engines and discoverable by individuals seeking therapy.

By creating a listing on MFTFinder, therapists consent to the public display of their professional profile information. Therapists are responsible for the accuracy of their listings and may update or remove their information at any time through their account dashboard or by contacting privacy@mftfinder.com.

MFTFinder does not publish personal health information about clients, individuals seeking therapy, or any third parties. If you are a client searching for a therapist, your search queries, contact form submissions, and browsing activity are treated as private user data as described in this policy.

6. Data Retention

We retain your personal information for as long as necessary to fulfill the purposes described in this Privacy Policy, or as required by law. Our general retention practices are as follows:

Account data: Retained for the life of your account plus up to 3 years after account deletion, to comply with legal obligations and resolve disputes.
Contact form submissions: Retained for up to 2 years.
Analytics and log data: Retained in identifiable form for up to 26 months, then aggregated or deleted.
Marketing email lists: Retained until you unsubscribe, after which we retain a record of your unsubscribe status to prevent future marketing emails.
Therapist listing information: Retained while the listing is active. Upon account closure, public profile information is removed within 30 days, though de-identified historical data may be retained for analytics purposes.

When personal data is no longer needed, we securely delete or anonymize it in accordance with industry-standard data destruction practices.

7. Your Rights and Choices

General Rights

Regardless of your location, you have the following rights with respect to your personal information:

Access: You may request a copy of the personal information we hold about you.
Correction: You may request that we correct inaccurate or incomplete information.
Deletion: You may request deletion of your personal information, subject to our legal obligations and legitimate business needs.
Opt-out of marketing: You may unsubscribe from marketing emails at any time using the unsubscribe link in any email we send, or by contacting us directly.
Data portability: You may request a machine-readable copy of your account data.

California Residents — CCPA Rights

If you are a California resident, you 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, use, disclose, and sell about you.
The right to delete your personal information (subject to certain exceptions).
The right to opt out of the sale or sharing of your personal information. Note: MFTFinder does not sell your personal information.
The right to correct inaccurate personal information.
The right to limit use and disclosure of sensitive personal information.
The right to non-discrimination for exercising your privacy rights.

To exercise any of these rights, submit a verifiable consumer request to privacy@mftfinder.com. We will respond within 45 days of receiving your request.

EU and UK Residents — GDPR Rights

If you are located in the European Union or United Kingdom, you have rights under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and UK GDPR, including:

The right to access your personal data.
The right to rectify inaccurate personal data.
The right to erasure ("right to be forgotten").
The right to restrict processing.
The right to data portability.
The right to object to processing based on legitimate interests or for direct marketing.
Rights related to automated decision-making and profiling.

Our lawful bases for processing personal data include: performance of a contract (for account holders), legitimate interests (for analytics and security), and consent (for marketing communications). To exercise your GDPR rights, contact privacy@mftfinder.com. You also have the right to lodge a complaint with your local supervisory authority.

8. Children's Privacy

Our Service is not directed to individuals under the age of 18. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 18. If you are under 18, please do not use our Service or submit any personal information. If you are a parent or guardian and believe your child has provided personal information to us, please contact us immediately at privacy@mftfinder.com and we will take steps to delete such information from our systems.

We comply with the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). If we become aware that a child under 13 has provided us with personal information, we will promptly delete such information from our records.

9. Third-Party Services

Our Service may contain links to third-party websites, including therapist practice websites, professional association pages, and mental health resources. This Privacy Policy applies only to MFTFinder and does not govern the privacy practices of any third-party websites or services. We encourage you to review the privacy policies of any third-party sites you visit.

We integrate with certain third-party services to operate our platform. These include:

Google Analytics: For website analytics. Governed by Google's Privacy Policy.
Google Fonts: For typography. Font loading may transmit your IP address to Google's servers.
Payment processors: Stripe or similar services for therapist subscription billing. We do not store credit card data on our servers.
Email delivery providers: For transactional and marketing email delivery.

Each third-party service has its own privacy policy, and we encourage you to review them. We are not responsible for the data practices of third-party services.

10. Security

We implement reasonable administrative, technical, and physical safeguards to protect your personal information from unauthorized access, use, or disclosure. These measures include:

SSL/TLS encryption for all data transmitted between your browser and our servers.
Encrypted storage of sensitive account credentials.
Access controls limiting employee access to personal data on a need-to-know basis.
Regular security reviews and vulnerability assessments.
Incident response procedures for potential data breaches.

However, no method of transmission over the internet or method of electronic storage is 100% secure. While we strive to protect your personal information, we cannot guarantee absolute security. In the event of a data breach that affects your rights or freedoms, we will notify affected users as required by applicable law.

Reminder: Do not transmit sensitive health information through MFTFinder's general contact forms. If you need to share confidential health information, do so directly with your therapist through their secure practice management system.

11. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices, technology, legal requirements, or other factors. When we make material changes, we will:

Update the "Last updated" date at the top of this page.
Post a notice on our website homepage.
Send an email notification to registered account holders where the changes are material.

Your continued use of the Service after the effective date of any changes constitutes your acceptance of the updated Privacy Policy. If you do not agree to the updated policy, please discontinue use of the Service and contact us to close your account.

We encourage you to review this Privacy Policy periodically to stay informed about how we protect your information.

12. Contact Us

If you have questions, concerns, or requests regarding this Privacy Policy or our data practices, please contact us:

Email: privacy@mftfinder.com
General inquiries: Contact Form
Mailing address: MFTFinder.com, Privacy Department, United States

We will respond to all legitimate privacy inquiries within 30 days. For California residents exercising CCPA rights, we will respond within 45 days. For GDPR requests, we will respond within 30 days, with the possibility of a 60-day extension where necessary.