Privacy policy

In short

• We use your details to reply to you, book your appointments and look after your teeth. We do not sell them.
• This website loads Google and Meta tools that measure visits and our adverts. You can block them and the website still works: see how to stop tracking.
• To see, correct or delete the information we hold about you, email info@durbandentalcare.co.za.

Who we are

Durban Dental Care is a dental practice in Durban North. The responsible practitioner is N. Singh (BDTh), HPCSA registration TT0013005. This policy applies at:

• Durban Dental Care, North Coast Road Medical Centre, 490 Chris Hani Road, Park Hill, Durban North, Durban, 4051
• Smile Aesthetics by Durban Dental Care, 18 Kenneth Kaunda Road, Athlone, Durban North, Durban, 4051

Phone 031 563 2473 or 031 564 6771. Email info@durbandentalcare.co.za. In this policy, "we" and "us" mean the practice at either address.

Under the Protection of Personal Information Act, 2013 (POPIA), the practice is the responsible party for your personal information: it decides why and how the information is used. Questions and requests about your information go to the practice's Information Officer at info@durbandentalcare.co.za.

What this policy covers

This policy covers personal information we collect through this website, and through phone calls, emails, WhatsApp messages and Facebook or Instagram messages to the practice.

Your clinical record (your medical history, examination notes, X-rays and treatment notes) is made at the practice during your appointments. It is confidential, and it is covered by the patient forms you complete at the practice.

What we collect

When you contact us

Your name, phone number and email address, which address and times suit you, and anything you choose to tell us on a call or write in a message.

When you use this website

The tools listed under cookies and tracking collect your IP address, the type of device and browser you use, the pages you view, the page you came from, an approximate location worked out from your IP address, and clicks on our phone, WhatsApp, email and map links. This website sets no cookies of its own.

When you send feedback

What you write to us by email or WhatsApp about your visit. The patient feedback page explains how to send it.

What this website does not collect

This website has no form that sends your details to us. On pages with a booking request, the name, practice, treatment and day you choose stay in your browser. The send button opens WhatsApp on your own device with the message written out, and you decide whether to send it. Other ways to reach us are on the Book an appointment page.

Why we use it, and on what basis

POPIA allows us to use personal information only for a lawful reason (section 11). Ours are:

• Replying to you and arranging appointments. You asked us to, and we need the details to manage your care (section 11(1)(b) and (f); for health information you send us, section 32(1)(a)).
• Running the practice and meeting our legal duties, such as keeping clinical records (section 11(1)(c)).
• Measuring the website and our adverts. We want to see how people use this website, and whether our Google and Meta adverts lead to calls or messages. We rely on our legitimate interest in running and advertising the practice (section 11(1)(f)). You may object to this (see your rights) and block these tools yourself (see how to stop tracking).

Health information

If you send us health information, for example in a WhatsApp message, we treat it as confidential and use it only to arrange your care. POPIA calls health information special personal information (section 26). We may use it because we need it to treat you and to run the practice, and the people who see it here are bound by a duty of confidentiality (section 32).

Children

POPIA treats anyone under 18 as a child. For a child, a parent or guardian gives us the child's details and consents on the child's behalf (sections 34 and 35).

Who we share it with

We share personal information only with the people and companies below, and only what each one needs. We do not sell your information.

• Our service providers: the companies that host this website and our email, which means they store information for us.
• Google, through Google Tag Manager, Google Analytics and Google Ads conversion tracking: the website information described above.
• Meta Platforms, through the Meta Pixel (website information), and through WhatsApp, Facebook or Instagram if you message us there.
• Google Maps, only if you choose "Show map" on a page.
• For your treatment: your medical scheme when you claim from it, and a dental laboratory if your treatment needs one.
• Anyone you ask us to send your records to, such as another health professional.
• Anyone the law requires us to give it to.

Information sent outside South Africa

Google and Meta process website information on servers outside South Africa, under their own data protection terms. Our website host and email provider may also store information outside South Africa. POPIA allows this when the company receiving the information is bound by law, binding company rules or an agreement that protects it to a similar standard, or when you agree to the transfer (section 72).

How long we keep it

• Messages that do not lead to an appointment: only as long as we need them to deal with your request (section 14).
• If you become a patient: the details you gave us move into your patient record, which we keep for as long as the Health Professions Council of South Africa's record-keeping guidelines and the law require.
• Website information: Google Analytics keeps it for the retention period set in our Google Analytics account. Meta keeps Pixel information under its own policies.

Cookies and tracking on this website

This website loads Google Tag Manager and the Meta Pixel as soon as a page opens. It does not ask for your consent first. These tools place cookies (small text files) in your browser and send information about your visit to Google and Meta. This website sets no cookies of its own, so it works with these cookies blocked.

The lifetimes of the Google cookies are Google's published defaults. Your browser's settings show the cookies a page has actually set.

How to stop tracking

• Block or delete cookies in your browser settings, or use a private window. This website works without them.
• Install Google's Google Analytics opt-out browser add-on.
• Change or turn off personalised Google adverts in Google My Ad Center.
• Change the adverts Meta shows you in Meta ad preferences, and disconnect information that other websites send to Meta in your activity off Meta technologies. Both ask you to log in to Facebook or Instagram.

How Google and Meta use this information: Google privacy policy, how Google uses information from sites that use its services and Meta cookies policy.

WhatsApp

WhatsApp is run by WhatsApp LLC, part of Meta. When you message us on WhatsApp, the WhatsApp privacy policy applies to how WhatsApp handles your messages. Using WhatsApp is your choice: you can phone or email us instead.

Keeping it secure

This website uses HTTPS, so pages travel encrypted between our server and your browser. POPIA requires us to protect personal information with reasonable technical and organisational measures (section 19), and to hold the companies that store information for us to the same standard in written agreements (section 21). If we believe someone has accessed your personal information without permission, we must tell you and the Information Regulator (section 22).

Your rights

You may:

• ask whether we hold personal information about you, and for a copy of it (section 23);
• ask us to correct or delete information that is wrong, out of date or no longer needed (section 24);
• object to our use of your information, including for measuring the website and our adverts (section 11(3));
• withdraw consent you gave us;
• ask us not to send you marketing messages (section 69).

Email info@durbandentalcare.co.za for the attention of the Information Officer, or write to us at Durban Dental Care, North Coast Road Medical Centre, 490 Chris Hani Road, Park Hill, Durban North, Durban, 4051. We may ask you to confirm who you are before we give you any information. Where the law requires us to keep a record, such as a clinical record, we keep it and tell you why.

Marketing messages

We send marketing messages only to people who have agreed to receive them, and each message tells you how to stop them. Messages about an appointment you have booked are not marketing.

Complaints

If you are unhappy with how we have handled your personal information, please tell us first at info@durbandentalcare.co.za, so we can put it right. You may also complain to the Information Regulator:

• POPIA complaints: POPIAComplaints@inforegulator.org.za
• General enquiries: enquiries@inforegulator.org.za, 010 023 5200, or toll free 0800 017 160
• Address: Woodmead North Office Park, 54 Maxwell Drive, Woodmead, Johannesburg, 2191
• Website: inforegulator.org.za

Changes to this policy

We update this policy when the tools on this website, or the way we handle information, change. The date at the top of this page shows the last update.

Related pages: Terms and conditions and Website disclaimer.