The Women’s Clinic Privacy Notice & Cookie Policy

This privacy notice and cookie policy explains how The Women’s Clinic uses your personal data and applies cookies when you are visiting our website at thewomensclinic.life.

For the purpose of applicable data protection legislation (including but not limited to the UK General Data Protection Regulation (the “GDPR”), the Data protection Act 2018 and the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulation 2003.
It is important that you read this privacy notice and cookie policy together with any other privacy notice we may provide on specific occasions when we are collecting or processing personal data about you so that you are fully informed of how and why we are using your data.

1. Important Information and who we are
2. The Data we collect about you
3. How is your personal data collected
4. How we use your personal data and our legal basis for doing so
5. Disclosures of your personal data
6. International Transfers
7. Data Security
8. Data Retention
9. Your Legal Rights
10. Glossary

1. Important Information and who we are

Data Controller

The Women’s Clinic Limited is the data controller and responsible for your personal data (collectively referred to as Choose an item. “we”, “us” or “our” in this privacy notice).

If you have any questions about this privacy notice, including any requests to exercise your legal rights, please contact us using the details set out below.

Full name of legal entity: The Women’s Clinic Limited

Phone Number: 0141 2222 503

Email address for our DPO: [email protected]

Postal address: The Women’s Clinic, 2nd Floor, Central Chambers, 11 Bothwell Street, Glasgow G2 6LY

You have the right to make a complaint at any time to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the UK supervisory authority for data protection issues (www.ico.org.uk). We would, however, appreciate the chance to deal with your concerns before you approach the ICO so please contact us in the first instance.

Changes to the Privacy Notice and your duty to inform us of changes

This version was last updated in July 2021 and historic versions can be obtained by contacting us.

It is important that the personal data we hold about you is accurate and current. Please keep us informed if your personal data changes during your relationship with us.

Third-Party Links

This website may include links to third-party websites, plug-ins and applications. Clicking on those links or enabling those connections may allow third parties to collect or share data about you. We do not control these third-party websites and are not responsible for their privacy statements. When you leave our website, we encourage you to read the privacy notice of every website you visit.

2. The Data We Collect About You

Personal data, or personal information, means any information about an individual from which that person can be identified. It does not include data where the identity has been removed (anonymous data).
We may collect, use and retain different categories of personal data about you which we have grouped together follows:

• Identity Data includes first name, last name, former names, username or similar identifier, NHS number, social media identifiers, marital status, title, date of birth and gender.
• Contact Data includes billing address, delivery address, home address, email address and telephone numbers. We may also ask you for an emergency contact number.
• Financial Data includes bank account, payment card details. When applying for credit this may also include salary, outgoings, ability to pay and credit references.
• Transaction Data includes details about payments to and from you and other details of products and services you have purchased from us.
• Technical Data includes internet protocol (IP) address, your login data, browser type and version, time zone setting and location, browser plug-in types and versions, operating system and platform and other technology on the devices you use to access this website.
• Profile Data includes your username and password, purchases or orders made by you, your interests, preferences, feedback and survey responses.
• Usage Data includes information about how you use our website, products and services.
• Marketing and Communications Data includes your preferences in receiving marketing from us and our third parties and your communication preferences.
• Treatment Data includes information about the treatment you wish to (or have) received from us. This information could include ‘health data’ which is a special category of personal data and therefore requires us to take extra steps to ensure it is adequately protected. Depending on your treatment this may also include photographs which form an important part of your treatment record.

We also collect and use aggregated (anonymous) data such as statistical or demographic data for any purpose. Aggregated data may be derived from your personal data but is not considered personal data in law as this data does not directly or indirectly reveal your identity. For example, we may aggregate your website usage data to calculate the percentage of users accessing a specific website feature. However, if we combine or connect aggregated data with your personal data so that it can directly or indirectly identify you, we treat the combined data as personal data which will be used in accordance with this privacy notice.

With the exception of treatment data, we do not collect any other special categories of personal data about you (this includes details about your race or ethnicity, religious or philosophical beliefs, sex life, sexual orientation, political opinions, trade union membership, information about your health and genetic and biometric data). Nor do we collect any information about criminal convictions and offences.

If You Fail To Provide Personal Data

Where we need to collect personal data by law or under the terms of a contract we have with you and you fail to provide that data when requested, we may not be able to perform the contract we have or are trying to enter into with you (for example, to provide you with goods or services). In this case, we may have to cancel a product or service you have with us but we will notify you if this is the case at the time.

Our website www.thewomensclinic.life logs IP addresses and uses tracking technology, such as cookies and pixels, to provide a more fluid user experience and allow us to better understand how visitors use our website. These non-essential tracking technologies will only be used with your consent. You can update your preferences by visiting our cookie control centre here.

3. How Is Your Personal Data Collected?

We use a number of different channels to collect your personal data. These include:

Direct interactions with you. You may give us your Identity, Contact and Financial Data by filling in forms or by corresponding with us by post, phone, email or otherwise. This includes personal data you provide when you:

• order or make and enquiry regarding any of our products or services, either online, over the phone or in one of our clinics;
• from your healthcare practitioner if they refer you to us;
• create an account on our website;
• subscribe to our service or publications;
• request marketing to be sent to you;
• enter a competition, promotion or complete a survey;
• give us some feedback or post on one of our social media accounts;
• contact, financial and transaction data from providers of technical, payment and delivery services such as Worldpay based inside the EU;

4. How We Use Your Personal Data

We will only use your personal data when the law allows us to and in accordance with this privacy notice. Most commonly, we will use your personal data in the following circumstances:

• where we need to perform the contract we are about to enter into or have entered into with you for the provision of a product or service;
• to respond to your enquiry and provide you with the information you have asked for, and follow up that enquiry;
• where it is necessary for our legitimate interests (or those of a third party) and your interests and fundamental rights do not override those interests;
• where we need to comply with a legal or regulatory obligation;
• marketing Activities; and
• to respond to any complaint and help us to establish, exercise or defend legal claims.

Generally, we do not rely on consent as a legal basis for processing your personal data other than in relation to sending direct marketing communications to you via email or text message and the use of non-essential cookies and similar tracking technologies. You have the right to withdraw consent to marketing at any time by contacting us.

Using Your Health Data

In light of the services which we provide to our customers, it will often be necessary for us to use information about your health. Even in the broadest sense of the word, ‘health’ information is a special category of personal data which requires us to have an additional lawful basis for using this information.  Where we use information about your health for the purpose of providing our services to you (or in preparation for us to provide services to you), the additional lawful basis on which we shall rely will be that such use is necessary in order for us to provide you with health care or treatment.

Purposes for Which We May Use Your Personal Data and Our Legal Basis

We have set out below, in a table format, a description of all the ways we may use your personal data, and which of the legal bases we rely on to do so. We have also identified what our legitimate interests are where appropriate.
Note that we may process your personal data for more than one lawful ground depending on the specific purpose for which we are using your data. Please Contact us if you require further details about the specific legal basis we are relying on to process your personal data where more than one basis has been set out in the table below.

Responding to your enquiries

We will respond to your enquiries using the contact information you have provided us with. This may include email, telephone, post and SMS. If we are unable to contact you or don’t receive a response we may contact you again to ensure you have all of the information you need.

Feedback Emails

To send you client satisfaction surveys and feedback requests by email to help improve our services via the Trustpilot platform. These messages will not include any promotional content and we will only send them where we have a legitimate interest to do so.

Marketing

We strive to provide you with choices regarding certain personal data uses, particularly around marketing and advertising. You can choose the channel by which you will receive marketing and change your preferences at any time.

Promotional Offers from Us

We may use your Identity, Contact, Technical, Usage and Profile Data to form a view on what we think you may want or need, or what may be of interest to you. This is how we decide which products, services and offers may be relevant for you (we call this marketing).

You will only receive marketing communications from us if you have requested information from us or specifically opted-in to receive marketing by email or SMS. We may send marketing by post or call you by telephone where permitted to do so by law.

Third-Party Marketing

We will never sell or disclose your data to a third party for the purpose of marketing. We may promote third party products or services on behalf of another organisation, but will only do so where we have your explicit consent.

Opting Out

You can ask us or to stop sending you marketing messages at any time following the opt-out links on any marketing message sent to you.

Where you opt out from receiving marketing messages, this will not apply to other communications, for example appointment reminders.

Cookie Policy

1. WHAT ARE COOKIES?

Our site uses cookies to keep track of progress and to provide our visitors with a tailored user experience. With the help of cookies, we can present you with customised content and adverts that will be of more interest to you. We also use cookies to remember your passwords for you so you don’t have to re-enter them each time you visit the site. We will only use non-essential cookies where we have your consent to do so. Similarly, you have the option of setting your browser to reject cookies. However, if certain cookies that track your details are rejected then we won’t be able to pre-fill any data on the site or direct you to the correct stage on your next visit.

1. COOKIE UPDATE

The Women’s Clinic uses necessary cookies to make our site easier for you to use and to ensure you get the best browsing experience. We also use non-necessary cookies to serve personalised advertising via third party advertising platforms such as Facebook Ads and Google Ads.

We will only read or write cookies for the preference level set, cookies set prior to you changing your settings will still be on your computer and you can remove them using your browser settings.

We use a cookie to remember your cookie preferences this has a couple of consequences

• If you delete all your cookies you will have to update your preferences with us again.
• If you use a different device, computer profile or browser you will have to tell us your preferences again.

iii. ADVERTISER COOKIES

You may be served cookies from our third party partners, such as advertisers, while visiting our site. We do not control, nor do we have access to, any of the information they may collect.

1. HOW WE USE COOKIES AT

• ASP.NET_SessionId – Stores the unique session ID provided to the user by the website.
• .ASPXFORMSAUTH – Stores the user’s encrypted authentication ticket when using forms authentication.
• Campaign – Stores the web analytics Campaign assigned to the visitor.
• CMSCookieLevel – Specifies which cookies are allowed by the visitor.
• CMSCsrfCookie – Store’s a security token that the system uses to validate all form data submitted via POST requests. Helps protect against Cross site request forgery.
• CookieBar – Stores whether or not the visitor has accepted the cookie policy.
• CPCKeyword – Stores the keyword that directed the visitor to the site if it was via a PPC campaign.
• CurrentContact – Stores the GUID of the contact related to the current site visitor. Used to track activities on the website.
• DoubleClick – Cookies used by the Google DoubleClick advertising service. Full details on DoubleClick cookies can be found here.
• Google Ads – Cookies used by Google Ads can be found here
• Facebook Ads – Cookies used by Facebook Ads to serve targeted ads on Facebook and Instagram can be found here
• Google Analytics – Cookies used by Google Analytics to track the visitor’s data on the website. Full details on Google Analytics cookies can be found here.
• Hotjar – Cookies used by the Hotjar user experience tool. Full details on Hotjar cookies can be found here.
• SorryYourLeavingPopupShown – Stores whether or not the visitor has been show the sorry you’re leaving popup.
• Source – Stores the channel which the user came from (e.g., email, Facebook, Twitter, etc.).
• StickyFooter- – Stores whether or not the visitor has performed an action in the mobile sticky footer.
• TimeOnSite – Stores the total time in seconds the visitor has been on the website this session.
• UrlReferrer, ReferrerURL – Stores the URL referrer from which the user arrives on the website.
• VisitorStatus – Indicates if the visitor is new or returning. Used for tracking the visitors statistic in Web analytics.

1. INFORMATION THIS WEBSITE GATHERS/TRACKS
As web tracking offers more chances to market to website visitors across the Internet, you as a visitor to our website may be targeted with adverts on other websites. Google and third party vendors might show targeted adverts with the ability to opt out. First and third party cookies are used to provide information and offer improvements to optimise quality of adverts served. You can change the cookie management settings on our website or in your web browser to stop these adverts.

 CHANGE OF PURPOSE
We will only use your personal data for the purposes for which we collected it, unless we reasonably consider that we need to use it for another reason and that reason is compatible with the original purpose. If you wish to get an explanation as to how the processing for the new purpose is compatible with the original purpose, please Contact us.

If we need to use your personal data for an unrelated purpose, we will notify you before we do this and we will explain the legal basis which allows us to do so.
Please note that we may process your personal data without your knowledge or consent, in compliance with the above rules, where this is required or permitted by law.

5. DISCLOSURES OF YOUR PERSONAL DATA

We may have to disclose your personal data with the parties set out below for the purposes set out in the table in paragraph 4 above. Such third parties consist of:

• IT: Service providers acting as processors who provide IT and system administration services. This may include the following data processors: MailChimp, SurveyMonkey, Microsoft, Worldpay and Stripe.
• Advisors: Professional advisers including lawyers, bankers, auditors and insurers who provide consultancy, banking, legal, insurance and accounting services.
• Authorities: HM Revenue & Customs, The Care Quality Commission and other regulators and other authorities who require reporting of processing activities in certain circumstances.

We require all third parties and data processors to respect the security of your personal data and to treat it in accordance with the law. We do not allow our data processors to use your personal data for their own purposes and only permit them to process your personal data for specified purposes and in accordance with our instructions.

6. International Transfers

We do not transfer your sensitive personal data outside the European Economic Area (EEA). The data processors we use for sending marketing communications and surveys are based in the USA. We have satisfied ourselves that these global service providers are reputable and will only process your data in accordance with our strict instructions.

7. Data Security

We have put in place appropriate security measures to prevent your personal data from being accidentally lost, used or accessed in an unauthorised way, altered or disclosed. In addition, we limit access to your personal data to those employees, agents, contractors and other third parties who have a business need to know. They will only have access to and process your personal data on our strict instructions and they are subject to a duty of confidentiality.
We undertake regular auditing of all of our systems to ensure they remain secure and compliant. All of our employees undergo data protection and security training.
We have put in place procedures to deal with any suspected personal data breach and will notify you and any applicable regulator of a breach where we are legally required to do so.

8.How Long Do We Keep Your Personal Data For?

Clients:

How long we retain your personal data depends on if you have entered into a contract, the type of treatment you have received for and the level of recent substantial contact with you.

When we refer to “substantial contact”, we mean, for example, communication between us (either verbal or written), or where you are actively engaging with our online services. We will also consider it substantial contact if you communicate with us about a treatment, either by verbal or written communication or click through from any of our marketing communications. Your receipt, opening or reading of an email or other digital message from us will not count as substantial contact – this will only occur in cases where you click-through or reply directly. However, opening a marketing email would qualify as remaining engaged with us.

Attended treatments or goods purchased

In the event of a contract for procedure(s) existing we will delete your personal data from our systems if the last transaction date (appointment, payment or treatment) in relation to the contract is over 10 years old for surgical procedures or 8 years for non-surgical treatment procedures and we have not had substantial contact with you for a period of one year.

Attended Consultation Only

In the event of you having only attended for a consultation(s) in relation to the services we provide we will delete your personal data from our systems if the last consultation date is over 2 years old and we have not had substantial contact with you for a period of one year.

Expression of Interest Only

In the event of you having only expressed an interest in our services and not attended any appointments in relation to the services we provide we will delete your personal data from our systems if the last substantial contact with is not within a period of one year.

We will delete your personal data from our systems unless we believe in good faith that the law or other regulation requires us to preserve it (for example, because of our obligations to tax authorities or in connection with any anticipated litigation). After this period, it is likely your data will no longer be relevant for the purposes for which it was collected.

9. Your Legal Rights

One of the Data Protection Acts main objectives is to protect and clarify the rights of individuals with regards to data privacy.

This means that you retain various rights in respect of your data, even once you have given it to us.  We will seek to deal with your request without undue delay, and in any event within 30 days (subject to any extensions to which we are lawfully entitled).

Please note that we may keep a record of your communications to help us resolve any issues which you raise.

Under certain circumstances, you have rights under data protection laws in relation to your personal data. These include the following:

Right to Object:

• If we are using your data because we deem it necessary for our legitimate interests to do so, and you do not agree, you have the right to object. We will respond to your request within 30 days (although we may be allowed to extend this period in certain cases). Generally, we will only disagree with you if certain limited conditions apply.
• This right enables you to object to us processing your personal data where we do so for one of the following four reasons: (i) our legitimate interests; (ii) to enable us to perform a task in the public interest or exercise official authority; (iii) to send you direct marketing materials; and (iv) for scientific, historical, research, or statistical purposes.
• The “legitimate interests” and “direct marketing” categories above are the ones most likely to apply to our Website Users and Clients. If your objection relates to us processing your personal data because we deem it necessary for your legitimate interests, we must act on your objection by ceasing the activity in question unless:
  • We can show that we have compelling legitimate grounds for processing which overrides your interests; or
  • We are processing your data for the establishment, exercise or defence of a legal claim.
    • If your objection relates to direct marketing, we must act on your objection by ceasing this activity.

Right to Withdraw Consent:

Where we have obtained your consent to process your personal data for certain activities (for example, for the provision of a procedure), or consent to market to you, you may withdraw your consent at any time and we will cease to carry out the particular activity that you previously consented to unless we consider that there is an alternative reason to justify our continued processing of your data for this purpose in which case we will inform you of this condition.

Data Access Requests:

You may ask us to confirm what information we hold about you at any time, and request us to modify, update or delete such information. We may ask you to verify your identity and for more information about your request. If we provide you with access to the information we hold about you, we will not charge you for this unless your request is “manifestly unfounded or excessive”. If you request further copies of this information from us, we may charge you a reasonable administrative cost where legally permissible. Where we are legally permitted to do so, we may refuse your request. If we refuse your request we will always tell you the reasons for doing so.

Right to Remove:

In certain situations (for example, where we have processed your data unlawfully), you have the right to request us to “remove” your personal data. We will respond to your request within 30 days (although we may be allowed to extend this period in certain cases) and will only disagree with you if certain limited conditions apply. If we do agree to your request, we will delete your data but will generally assume that you would prefer us to keep a note of your name on our register of individuals who would prefer not to be contacted. That way, we will minimise the chances of you being contacted in the future where your data are collected in unconnected circumstances. If you would prefer us not to do this, you are free to say so.

Normally, the information must meet one of the following criteria:

the data is no longer necessary for the purpose for which we originally collected and/or processed them;

• where previously given, you have withdrawn your consent to us processing your data, and there is no other valid reason for us to continue processing;
• the data has been processed unlawfully (i.e. in a manner which does not comply with the GDPR);
• it is necessary for the data to be deleted in order for us to comply with our legal obligations as a data controller; or
• if we process the data because we believe it necessary to do so for our legitimate interests, you object to the processing and we are unable to demonstrate overriding legitimate grounds for our continued processing.

We would only be entitled to refuse to comply with your request for one of the following reasons:

• to exercise the right of freedom of expression and information;
• to comply with legal obligations or for the performance of a public interest task or exercise of official authority;
• for public health reasons in the public interest;
• for archival, research or statistical purposes; or
• to exercise or defend a legal claim.

When complying with a valid request for the removal of data we will take all reasonably practicable steps to delete the relevant data. If we have shared your personal data with third parties, we will notify them about the request for the removal of data unless this is impossible or involves disproportionate effort.

Right to Restrict Processing:

You have the right to request that we restrict our processing of your personal data in certain circumstances. This means that we can only continue to store your data and will not be able to carry out any further processing activities with it until either: (i) one of the circumstances listed below is resolved; (ii) you consent; or (iii) further processing is necessary for either the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims, the protection of the rights of another individual, or reasons of important EU or Member State public interest.

The circumstances in which you are entitled to request that we restrict the processing of your personal data are:

• where you dispute the accuracy of the personal data that we are processing about you. In this case, our processing of your personal data will be restricted for the period during which the accuracy of the data is verified;
• where you object to our processing of your personal data for our legitimate interests. Here, you can request that the data be restricted while we verify our grounds for processing your personal data;
• where our processing of your data is unlawful, but you would prefer us to restrict our processing of it rather than erasing it; and
• where we have no further need to process your personal data but you require the data to establish, exercise, or defend legal claims.

If we have shared your personal data with third parties, we will notify them about the restricted processing unless this is impossible or involves disproportionate effort. We will, of course, notify you before lifting any restriction on processing your personal data.

Right to Rectification:

You also have the right to request that we rectify any inaccurate or incomplete personal data that we hold about you. If we have shared this personal data with third parties, we will notify them about the rectification unless this is impossible or involves disproportionate effort. Where appropriate, we will also tell you which third parties we have disclosed the inaccurate or incomplete personal data to. Where we think that it is reasonable for us not to comply with your request, we will explain our reasons for this decision.

10. Glossary

Lawful Basis

Legitimate Interest means the interest of our business in conducting and managing our business to enable us to give you the best service/product and the best and most secure experience. We make sure we consider and balance any potential impact on you (both positive and negative) and your rights before we process your personal data for our legitimate interests. We do not use your personal data for activities where our interests are overridden by the impact on you (unless we have your consent or are otherwise required or permitted to by law). You can obtain further information about how we assess our legitimate interests against any potential impact on you in respect of specific activities by Contacting us

Performance of Contract means processing your data where it is necessary for the performance of a contract to which you are a party or to take steps at your request before entering into such a contract.

Comply with a legal or regulatory obligation means processing your personal data where it is necessary for compliance with a legal or regulatory obligation that we are subject to.

Necessary for us to provide health care or treatment means processing your special categories of personal data (i.e. health data) where it is necessary for the purposes of preventive or occupational medicine, the provision of health or social care or treatment or the management of health or social care systems and services on the basis of EU or UK law or pursuant to contract with a health professional (subject to required conditions and safeguards).