Your information.

Who is responsible

Fitzwilliam Street Dental Care, of 2 Fitzwilliam Street, Wath upon Dearne, Rotherham S63 7HF, is the data controller for the information described here. You can reach us on 01709 872292 or at info@fitzwilliamdental.co.uk.

What we collect

If you are a patient: your name, contact details, date of birth, and the clinical information that makes up your dental record, including your medical history, the treatment you have had, clinical notes, x-rays and photographs where they are taken.

If you contact us through this website: the name and contact details you give us, and whatever you write in the message. The enquiry forms on this site send that to the practice by email.

If you allow analytics cookies: information about how you use the site, such as the pages you visit, the options you click, and which advert, search or link brought you here. It also includes a recording of how you moved through the pages, with everything you type blanked out of it. Nothing analytical is loaded until you agree to it. Your choice is remembered for six months, and you can change it at any point through the cookie preferences link in the footer.

Cookies we set

A cookie is a small file a website stores in your browser. We use as few as we can, and only one of them is set before you have made a choice.

• cc_cookie remembers whether you accepted or declined analytics, so we do not ask again on every page. It is set as soon as you answer the banner, lasts six months, and is necessary for the choice to mean anything.
• __attr records which advert, search or link brought you to the site and the first page you arrived on, so that we can tell what is worth paying for. It lasts 30 days, holds no name or contact details, and is written only if you allow analytics. If you decline, or later change your mind, it is not written and any existing one is removed.
• Analytics cookies and storage from the providers we use to measure how the site is performing, whose names begin with ph_ or _ga. These are set only if you allow analytics. They record the pages you read and link your visits together, so that we can see how people move through the site rather than only how many arrived. That record is tied to the cookie in your browser and not to your name, and clearing this site's cookies ends it.

If you decline, none of the optional ones are loaded at all. Declining takes one click, the same as accepting.

The activity feed on this site

When someone sends an enquiry, asks for a callback, or finishes one of the tools on this site, a short message can appear for a few seconds in the corner of the page for anyone else who happens to have the site open at that moment. It reads, for example, "Sarah requested an appointment".

It shows a first name and what was done, and nothing else. There is no surname, no contact details, and nothing about your treatment or your dental record. The surname is removed on our own server before the message is sent anywhere, so it never reaches another visitor's browser.

The message is not stored. It is passed to the browsers that are open at that moment and is then gone, which means someone arriving later sees nothing, and there is no record of it for us or anyone else to go back to.

There is currently no way to switch this off from the forms. If you would rather your first name did not appear, please phone the practice on 01709 872292 instead of using a form, as calls do not create one of these messages.

Why we are allowed to hold it

Health information is a special category of data and needs a specific legal basis. For your dental record, we rely on the provision of health care and treatment, and on our legal obligations as a registered dental practice, including keeping accurate records.

For enquiries you send us, we rely on your request that we respond, and on our legitimate interest in running the practice. For analytics, we rely on your consent, which you give or withhold through the cookie banner.

Who we share it with

We share information where your care requires it, for example with a specialist we refer you to, a dental laboratory making something for you, or your GP where that is relevant to your treatment. We use service providers to run parts of the practice and this website, and they may handle your information on our instructions.

We do not sell your information, and we do not use it to target advertising at you. Where you have allowed analytics, we do record which advert or search brought you to the site, so that we know which of them are worth paying for. That tells us about the advert, not about you.

How long we keep it

Dental records are kept for a period set by professional record-keeping requirements, which is longer for children than for adults. Enquiries that do not lead to treatment are kept for a shorter period. Ask us and we will tell you exactly how long we hold what.

Your rights

You can ask for a copy of the information we hold about you, ask us to correct anything that is wrong, and in some circumstances ask us to delete it or restrict how we use it. You can object to processing based on legitimate interests, and withdraw consent where consent is what we relied on.

Some of these rights are limited where we have a legal obligation to keep clinical records. We cannot delete your dental record on request while we are required to retain it, and we will explain that if it applies.

To exercise any of these, contact the practice. We will respond within the time the law allows and will not charge you unless a request is manifestly unfounded or excessive.

Complaints

If you are unhappy with how we have handled your information, tell us first so we can put it right. You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner's Office, the UK regulator for data protection, at ico.org.uk.