Blackdown Hearing - Our Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy applies to information we, Blackdown Hearing Ltd, collect about individuals who interact with our business. It explains what personal information we collect and how we use it.

If you have any comments or questions about this policy, feel free to contact us at contact@blackdownhearing.co.uk

Your privacy is important to us. It is Blackdown Hearing Ltd.’s policy to respect your privacy and comply with any applicable law and regulation regarding any personal information we may collect about you, including across our website.

Personal information is any information about you which can be used to identify you. This includes information about you as a person (such as name, address, and date of birth), your devices, payment details, and even information about how you use a website or online service.

In the event our site contains links to third-party sites and services, please be aware that those sites and services have their own privacy policies. After following a link to any third-party content, you should read their posted privacy policy information about how they collect and use personal information. This Privacy Policy does not apply to your activities after leaving our site.

1. Personal data that we process

The following explains the types of data we collect and the legal basis, under current data protection legislation, on which this data is processed:

Purpose: Enquiring about our business and our services

Data (key elements): Name, email, address, postcode, phone number, message

Basis: Legitimate interests - it is necessary for us to read and store your message so that we can respond in the way that you would expect

Purpose: Subscribing to email updates about our business and our services

Data (key elements): Name, email

Basis: Consent - you have given your active consent

Purpose: Make an appointment

Data (key elements): Name, email, address, phone number, appointment-related health questions

Basis: Legitimate interests - this information is necessary for us to fulfil your intention of making an appointment and your expectation of receiving a confirmation message or email

Purpose: Website functionality

Data (key elements): Website activity collected through cookies

Basis: Legitimate interests - it is necessary for us to store a small amount of information, usually through cookies, to deliver the functionality that you would expect when visiting our website https://www.blackdownhearing.co.uk

2. How we use your data

We will only use your data in a manner that is appropriate considering the basis on which that data was collected, as set out in this policy. In this instance, we only collect personal information that is reasonably necessary to provide our services to you.

For example, we may use your personal information to:

• reply to enquiries or messages you send to us through our online appointment booking or contact forms on our website;

• for internal record-keeping and administrative purposes;

• to comply with our legal obligations and resolve any disputes that we may have;

• to attribute any content (e.g. posts, reviews and comments) you submit that we publish on our website;

• where you have specifically agreed to this, send you marketing communications by email relating to our work, which we think may be of interest to you.

3. When we share your data

We will only pass your data to third parties in the following circumstances:

• you have provided your explicit consent for us to pass data to a named third party;

• third-party service providers to enable them to provide their services, for example, IT service providers, practice management and online booking service providers, data storage, hosting and server providers, advertisers, or analytics platforms; or

• we are required by law to share your data.

In addition, we will only pass data to third parties outside of the EU where appropriate safeguards are in place as defined by Article 46 of the General Data Protection Regulation.

4. How long we keep your data

We take the principles of data minimisation and removal seriously and have internal policies in place to ensure that we only ever ask for the minimum amount of data for the associated purpose and delete that data promptly once it is no longer required.

5. Security of your data

When we collect and process personal information, and while we retain this information, we will protect it within commercially acceptable means to prevent loss and theft, as well as unauthorised access, disclosure, copying, use, or modification.

Although we will do our best to protect the personal information you provide to us, we advise that no method of electronic transmission or storage is 100% secure, and no one can guarantee absolute data security. We will comply with laws applicable to us regarding any data breach.

6. Rights you have over your data

You have a range of rights over your data, which include the following:

• Where data processing is based on consent, you may revoke this consent at any time, and we will make it as easy as possible for you to do this (for example, by putting ‘unsubscribe’ links at the bottom of all our marketing emails).

• You have the right to ask for rectification and/or deletion of your information.

• You have the right of access to your information.

• You have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner if you feel your rights have been infringed.

A full summary of your legal rights over your data can be found on the Information Commissioner’s website here: https://ico.org.uk/

If you would like to access the rights listed above or any other legal rights you have over your data under current legislation, please contact us.

Please note that relying on some of these rights, such as the right to deleting your data, will make it impossible for us to continue to deliver some services to you. However, we will always try to allow the maximum access to your rights while continuing to deliver as many services to you as possible.

7. Cookies & usage tracking

A cookie is a small file of letters and numbers downloaded to your computer or mobile device when you visit a website. Many websites use cookies, and these cookies can do several things, e.g., remembering your preferences and counting the number of people looking at a website. For more details on our Cookie Policy, please visit here.

Where cookies are used to collect personal data, we list these purposes in section 1 above, along with other personal data we collect. However, we also use some cookies that do not collect personal information but help us collect anonymous information about how people use our website. We use Google Analytics for this purpose.  Google Analytics generates statistical and other information about website usage by means of cookies, which are stored on users' computers. The information collected by Google Analytics about the usage of our website is not personally identifiable. The data is collected anonymously, stored by Google and used by us to create reports about website usage. Google's privacy policy is available at http://www.google.com/privacypolicy.html, and to opt out of this, please visit https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout

8. Changes to this policy

We may modify this Privacy Policy from time to time and will publish the most current version on our website. If a modification meaningfully reduces your rights, we'll notify people whose personal data we hold and who is affected.

9. Contact us 

For any questions or concerns regarding your privacy, you may contact us using the following details: 

contact@blackdownhearing.co.uk 

This policy is effective as of 30 August 2020.

Last updated: 15th August 2023.