What happens to what you tell me

Who we are: MERGE Fitness, 278 East 1st Avenue, Vancouver, BC, V5T 1A6, Canada. Privacy contact: dai@dadbody.com

DadBody is a brand of MERGE Fitness, a company registered in British Columbia, Canada. It's run by me, Dai Manuel, a coach based in Vancouver.

MERGE Fitness is the data controller for the information on this page. In plain terms: we decide what is collected and why, and we answer for it.

If you have a question about your information, message me directly through the contact page and it comes to me, not to a support desk.

We follow British Columbia's Personal Information Protection Act and Canada's PIPEDA. You can ask to see, correct or delete the personal information we hold about you. Email the privacy contact. You can also complain to the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner for British Columbia.

• Stripe: payments. We never see your full card number.
• Beehiiv: email newsletter.
• Resend: transactional email.
• Trainerize by ABC Fitness: workout and habit tracking.
• Supabase: database and login.
• Google Analytics and Meta: site analytics and ads.
• Zapier: connecting the tools above.

Heads up: some of these tools store and process your information in the United States, where that country's laws apply. Using the service means you accept that.

We only send marketing email with your express consent, which you give by ticking the box or submitting a form that says so. Every email identifies MERGE Fitness, includes our contact details and a working unsubscribe link, and we process unsubscribes within 10 business days.

Transactional email (your receipt, your login, your program start) goes out either way, because you need it.

Two kinds of thing.

When you apply, I collect your name, email, phone number if you give it, age and city, plus your answers to the application questions. Some of those answers are about your health: how you rate it, what you are dealing with, how long it has been going on, and what it is costing you. Some men write a great deal in those boxes. That is the point of them.

When you use the site, I collect basic page view information so I can tell which pages are worth keeping. None of it is tied to your name.

If you join a program, the training app records your workouts, habits, body stats and progress photos if you choose to add them. I see those as your coach. The app provider, Trainerize by ABC Fitness, holds them under its own privacy policy.

When you buy, Stripe collects your payment details. I get your name, email, what you bought, the amount and a payment reference. I never see your card number.

When you tick a consent box or sign the release, I store the wording you agreed to, the version date, the time and your IP address. That's the record that proves you agreed.

The site uses essential services for login and payments. Google Analytics and the Meta (Facebook and Instagram) pixel are optional and stay off until you choose them. Google Analytics measures page visits and events using cookies, browser/device information and IP address. Meta uses similar information for advertising measurement. Meta requires both analytics and advertising permission. Neither tool runs on private member tools, health chat, applications or checkout pages. We do not send them form answers or account details. Your dated choices, a random browser identifier, and the notice shown are saved in this browser, including earlier choices when you withdraw. Open Cookie settings on any page to reject or change optional tracking. Withdrawing stops optional tracking and may refresh the page. Essential login and payment services still work. Clearing browser storage removes this browser’s consent record and asks you to choose again.

Two reasons: to decide who gets one of the twelve places, and to coach the men who do.

The application is scored, and I've written openly about how the scoring works. But the score sorts, it doesn't decide. I read every application myself, and the three answers I actually decide on are the written ones.

I don't sell it. I don't share it with advertisers. I don't put you on a marketing list because you applied.

Applications live in a database with access rules that make me the only person who can read them. Not applicants, not anyone browsing the site, not staff, because there is no staff.

Emails to you and to me go through a managed email service, so the contents pass through their systems. That's true of any email anyone sends you.

If you join a cohort, your training program lives in Trainerize, which is the coaching platform I use, and you get your own login there.

If you buy a program, you pay MERGE Fitness directly. We keep a record of what you bought, the amount and your invoice details, because tax and accounting law requires it. We never see or store your full card details.

Beyond that, your information goes only to the service providers that run this thing (hosting, database, email delivery, analytics), to professional advisers like an accountant or lawyer where needed, and to authorities where the law requires it. Some of these providers are outside Canada, including in the United States and the EU, and those transfers rely on standard contractual clauses or equivalent safeguards.

Where the law asks for a legal basis, MERGE Fitness relies on: performance of a contract, for everything needed to coach you and deliver the program you bought; legitimate interests, for reviewing applications, keeping the site secure, preventing fraud and understanding which pages work; consent, for optional analytics and advertising cookies and for any marketing email you asked for, which you can withdraw at any time; and legal obligation, for tax and accounting records.

Your information is held with appropriate technical and organisational measures: encrypted connections, database access rules that limit records to me, and admin tools behind a login.

No system is perfectly secure. If there were ever a breach that put you at real risk, I would tell you and the Commissioner, as the law requires.

Applications from men who join a cohort: for as long as I am coaching you, and then for two years, because men come back and it is useful to have the baseline.

Applications from men who do not join: twelve months, then deleted. If you would rather I deleted it sooner, ask and I will.

Waitlist entries: until you ask to come off, or until you have been offered a place twice and not taken it.

Payment records and signed agreements and releases: seven years, because tax law and the limitation period for claims both require it. Group call recordings: 90 days after the cohort ends.

You can ask me for a copy of everything I hold about you. You can ask me to correct it. You can ask me to delete it, and unless the law says I have to keep something, I will.

There's no form for this. Message me and I'll do it.

I'll answer within 30 days, which is what BC law allows, and usually much sooner. If you're outside Canada, you may also have rights under your local law, and I'll honour them as far as I can.

This site and every program are for adults 18 and over. I don't knowingly collect information from anyone under 18. If I learn I have, I delete it.

I will never quote you publicly without asking first. Every named result on this site is a real man who gave permission, and the permission is on file.

I will never use what you told me in an application as marketing copy.

I will never share your answers with another applicant, including in a cohort.