Privacy Policy

Introduction

Welcome to the My Caring Pod Limited's (“My Caring Pod”, “us” or “we”) privacy policy.

My Caring Pod respects your privacy and is committed to protecting your personal data. This privacy policy will inform you as to how we look after your personal data when you visit our website or our mobile application (regardless of where you visit it from) and tell you about your privacy rights and how the law protects you.

This privacy policy is provided in a layered format so you can click through to the specific areas set out below. Alternatively, you can download a pdf version of the [policy here]. Please also use the Glossary to understand the meaning of some of the terms used in this privacy policy.

Table of Content

1. Important information and who we are

Purpose of this privacy policy

This privacy policy aims to give you information on how My Caring Pod collects and processes your personal data through your use of this website or our mobile application, including any data you may provide through this website or our mobile application when you use our service platform for appointments with qualified medical practitioners (Platform).

This website is not intended for children and we do not knowingly collect data relating to children, except where such data is provided by a parent or legal guardian. For further information, please review our End-User Terms & Conditions.

It is important that you read this privacy policy together with any other privacy policy or fair processing policy we may provide on specific occasions when we are collecting or processing personal data about you so that you are fully aware of how and why we are using your data. This privacy policy supplements other notices and privacy policies and is not intended to override them.

If you are a user seeking medical advice from a medical practitioner, you are defined as a “User”. If you are a user providing medical advice to Users, you are defined as a “Healthcare Provider”. Different sections of this privacy policy will apply depending on whether you are a User or a Healthcare Provider. If you are a Healthcare Provider seeking medical advice on our Platform, you will be deemed a User, and if you are a User who also provides medical advice on our Platform, then where you are providing medical advice you will be deemed a Healthcare Provider.

Controller

My Caring Pod is made up of different legal entities, details of which can be found here: [LINK]. This privacy policy is issued on behalf of the My Caring Pod Group so when we mention "My Caring Pod", "we", "us" or "our" in this privacy policy, we are referring to the relevant company in the My Caring Pod Group responsible for processing your data. We will let you know which entity will be the controller for your data when you use our services. [My Caring Pod Limited] is the controller and responsible for this website or our mobile application.

We have appointed a data protection officer (DPO) who is responsible for overseeing questions in relation to this privacy policy. If you have any questions about this privacy policy, including any requests to exercise your legal rights, please contact the DPO using the details set out below.

Contact details

If you have any questions about this privacy policy or our privacy practices, please contact our DPO in the following ways:

Full name of legal entity: [My Caring Pod Limited]

Email address: [Dataprotection@mycaringpod.com]

Postal address: Gateway House (1st floor), 324 Regents Park Road, London, N3 2LN

You have the right to make a complaint at any time to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), the UK regulator 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 policy and your duty to inform us of changes

We keep our privacy policy under regular review. This version was last updated on [DATE]. 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 or our mobile application may include links to third-party websites or mobile applications, 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 or mobile applications and are not responsible for their privacy statements. When you leave our website or our mobile application, we encourage you to read the privacy policy of every website or mobile application you visit.

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).

Health Information

If you are a User, we collect information about your health as provided by you directly. The types of health information we collect includes:

Symptoms that you provide to the Healthcare Provider through our Platform.
Treatments and medications prescribed by the Healthcare Provider (where prescribed).
Procedures, including any recommendations as to surgery, scans and/or X-rays (where applicable).
Use of our Platform, including frequency of use and reports of any symptoms, or any follow-up consultations.

Consultation Information

We will also keep a record of consultations and conversations between Users and Healthcare Providers so that we can ensure that the quality of service and healthcare provided on our Platform is up to standards and not in contravention of any applicable laws.

Personal & financial information

We may also collect, use, store and transfer different kinds of personal data about you which we have grouped together as follows:

Identity Data includes first name, maiden name, last name, username or similar identifier, marital status, title, date of birth and gender.
Contact Data includes billing address, delivery address, email address and telephone numbers.
Financial Data includes bank account and payment card details.
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 or our mobile application.
Profile Data includes your username and password, payments made by you, your interests, preferences, feedback and survey responses.
Usage Data includes information about how you use our website, application and services.
Marketing and Communications Data includes your preferences in receiving marketing from us and our third parties and your communication preferences.

We also collect, use and share Aggregated Data such as statistical or demographic data for any purpose. Aggregated Data could be derived from your personal data but is not considered personal data in law as this data will not directly or indirectly reveal your identity. For example, we may aggregate your Usage Data to calculate the percentage of users accessing a specific website or mobile application 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 policy.

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 our service you have with us but we will notify you if this is the case at the time.

How is your personal data collected?

We use different methods to collect data from and about you including through:

Direct interactions. 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 [DELETE OR ADD TO THIS LIST AS APPROPRIATE]:

apply for our Platform;
create an account on our website or our mobile application;
subscribe to our service or publications;
request marketing to be sent to you;
give us feedback or contact us.

Automated technologies or interactions. As you interact with our website or our mobile application, we will automatically collect Technical Data about your equipment, browsing actions and patterns. We collect this personal data by using cookies, server logs and other similar technologies. We may also receive Technical Data about you if you visit other websites employing our cookies. Please see our cookie policy for further details.
Consultations with Healthcare Providers. Consultations and conversations between Users and Healthcare Providers will include certain details about the User’s health and wellbeing, and will also include medical advice and prescriptions thereto.
Third parties or publicly available sources. We will receive personal data about you from various third parties and public sources, including External Third Parties, which may include your employer.

Technical Data from the following parties:

analytics providers such as Google based outside the UK;
advertising networks [such as [NAME] based [inside OR outside] the UK]; and
search information providers [such as [NAME] based [inside OR outside] the UK].

Contact, Financial and Transaction Data from providers of technical, payment and delivery services [such as [NAME] based [inside OR outside] the UK].
Identity and Contact Data from data brokers or aggregators [such as [NAME] based [inside OR outside] the UK].
Identity and Contact Data from publicly available sources [such as Companies House and the Electoral Register based inside the UK].
[ANY OTHER WAYS YOU COLLECT PERSONAL DATA].

Specific types of personal data we collect

Below is a non-exhaustive list of the specific types of personal data we collect to provide you with our Platform and to enhance and improve our business. Certain other types of information may be collected or required in future, and we will notify you of these changes before any such change is to take effect:

Medical Records

If you are a User, our Healthcare Providers will collect information about your health, including:

your general health;
any symptoms described, and treatments and/or medications prescribed (where applicable);
descriptions of any prescribed procedures, including surgery, scans, and/or X-rays; and
any other information deemed necessary to be logged by a medical practitioner.

Please note that some of the information referred to above may come directly from you, but some of the information may also come from third parties (for example, your GP).

Consultations (including notes and transcripts)

To ensure that any prescribed treatments are constant throughout a User’s use of our Platform, we will also retain notes, recordings, and transcripts of medical consultations between Users and Healthcare Providers.

Please note, however, that as we are not regulated by the Care Quality Commission, we do not accept responsibility for the medical advice provided or received during any medical consultations with a medical practitioner, nor do we monitor any medical advice provided therein; rather, the Healthcare Provider will be responsible for any and all medical advice provided through our Platform. We are only responsible for providing the Platform on which consultations are held.

We will only retain notes, recordings, and transcripts of medical consultations to assess the quality and consistency of the services provided on our Platform.

Use of our Platform

If you are a Healthcare Provider, this will include your personal information to enter into a contract with us, as well as your professional information to enter into a contract with a User.

If you are a User, this will include your personal information to use our Platform, and to enter into a contract with a Healthcare Provider (where applicable).

We will also keep a record of consultations and conversations directly with us to ensure that we can actively monitor the quality of our Platform and the healthcare provided.

We will keep health and medical data secure by using technical and organisational measures, including existing internal data processing policies and encryption, to protect them.

Credit and debit card information

If you are a User making a payment to a Healthcare Provider, your credit and debit card details will be processed by a third-party payment provider; however, please note that we do not store credit and debit card information and we only maintain details of the transactions on our secure server.

How we use your personal data

We will only use your personal data in a way which complies with the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR). Most commonly, we will use your personal data in the following circumstances:

If you are a Healthcare Provider, where we need to perform the contract you are about to enter into or have entered into with you.
If you are a User, where we need to review and perform the contract you are about to enter into or have entered into with a Healthcare Provider.
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 obligation, such as fulfilling payment obligations or complying with health and medical laws and regulations.

Click here to find out more about the types of lawful basis that we will rely on to process your personal data.

If you are a User, we process the personal data which specifically concerns your health on the condition that it is necessary for the provision of healthcare, pursuant to a contract with a Healthcare Provider on our Platform. These data are processed under the responsibility of the Healthcare Providers, who are subject to the obligation of professional secrecy. This is in line with Article 9 of the UK GDPR and Article 2 of Part 1, Schedule 1 in the Data Protection Act 2018.

Generally, we do not rely on consent as a legal basis for processing your personal data although we will get your consent before sending third party direct marketing communications to you via email or text message. You have the right to withdraw consent to marketing at any time by contacting us.

Purposes for which we will use your personal data

We have set out below, in a table format, a description of all the ways we plan to 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 need details about the specific legal ground we are relying on to process your personal data where more than one ground has been set out in the table below.

Purpose/Activity	Type of data	Lawful basis for processing including basis of legitimate interest
To register you as a new customer	(a) Identity (b) Contact	Performance of a contract with you
To process and deliver your order including: (a) Manage payments, fees and charges (b) Collect and recover money owed to us	(a) Identity (b) Contact (c) Financial (d) Transaction (e) Marketing and Communications	(a) Performance of a contract with you (b) Necessary for our legitimate interests (to recover debts due to us)
To manage our relationship with you which will include: (a) Notifying you about changes to our terms or privacy policy (b) Asking you to leave a review or take a survey	(a) Identity (b) Contact (c) Profile (d) Marketing and Communications	(a) Performance of a contract with you (b) Necessary to comply with a legal obligation (c) Necessary for our legitimate interests (to keep our records updated and to study how customers use our products/services)
To enable you to partake in a prize draw, competition or complete a survey	(a) Identity (b) Contact (c) Profile (d) Usage (e) Marketing and Communications	(a) Performance of a contract with you (b) Necessary for our legitimate interests (to study how customers use our products/services, to develop them and grow our business)
To administer and protect our business and this website or our mobile application (including troubleshooting, data analysis, testing, system maintenance, support, reporting and hosting of data)	(a) Identity (b) Contact (c) Technical	(a) Necessary for our legitimate interests (for running our business, provision of administration and IT services, network security, to prevent fraud and in the context of a business reorganisation or group restructuring exercise) (b) Necessary to comply with a legal obligation
To deliver relevant website or our mobile application content and advertisements to you and measure or understand the effectiveness of the advertising we serve to you	(a) Identity (b) Contact (c) Profile (d) Usage (e) Marketing and Communications (f) Technical	Necessary for our legitimate interests (to study how customers use our products/services, to develop them, to grow our business and to inform our marketing strategy)
To use data analytics to improve our website or our mobile application, products/services, marketing, customer relationships and experiences	(a) Technical (b) Usage	Necessary for our legitimate interests (to define types of customers for our products and services, to keep our website or our mobile application updated and relevant, to develop our business and to inform our marketing strategy)
To make suggestions and recommendations to you about goods or services that may be of interest to you	(a) Identity (b) Contact (c) Technical (d) Usage (e) Profile (f) Marketing and Communications	Necessary for our legitimate interests (to develop our products/services and grow our business)
To review any medical advice or services in relation to your health and wellbeing	(a) Medical Information (b) Consultation records	Necessary to ensure that all medical advice provided is up to standard and complies with all applicable health and medical laws and regulations.
To regulate the quality and safety of our service.	(a) Medical Information (b) Consultation records	Necessary to ensure that, where we are legally required to or asked by a regulator, we share your information with regulatory bodies, such as the General Medical Council, Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency or the Care Quality Commission

Marketing

We strive to provide you with choices regarding certain personal data uses, particularly around marketing and advertising. We have established the following personal data control mechanisms:

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 receive marketing communications from us if you have requested information from us or purchased services from us and you have not opted out of receiving that marketing.

Third-party marketing

We will get your express opt-in consent before we share your personal data with any third party for marketing purposes.

Opting out

You can ask us or third parties to stop sending you marketing messages at any time by logging into the website or our mobile application and checking or unchecking relevant boxes to adjust your marketing preferences or by contacting us at any time.

Where you opt out of receiving these marketing messages, this will not apply to personal data provided to us as a result of a product/service purchase, warranty registration, product/service experience or other transactions.

You can set your browser to refuse all or some browser cookies, or to alert you when websites or our mobile application set or access cookies. If you disable or refuse cookies, please note that some parts of this website or our mobile application may become inaccessible or not function properly. For more information about the cookies we use, please see [our cookie policy].

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 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.

How we store and move your data

[PLEASE PROVIDE WITH A DESCRIPTION]

Disclosures of your personal data

We may share your personal data with the parties set out below for the purposes set out in the table Purposes for which we will use your personal data above.

Internal Third Parties as set out in the Glossary.
External Third Parties as set out in the Glossary.
If you are a User, Healthcare Providers as set out in the Glossary.
Specific third parties such as the General Medical Council, Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency, and/or the Care Quality Commission.
Third parties to whom we may choose to sell, transfer or merge parts of our business or our assets. Alternatively, we may seek to acquire other businesses or merge with them. If a change happens to our business, then the new owners may use your personal data in the same way as set out in this privacy policy.

We require all third parties to respect the security of your personal data and to treat it in accordance with the law. We do not allow our third-party service providers 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.

International transfers

We share your personal data within the My Caring Pod Group. This will involve transferring your data outside the UK.

Many of our external third parties are based outside the UK so their processing of your personal data will involve a transfer of data outside the UK.

Whenever we transfer your personal data out of the UK, we ensure a similar degree of protection is afforded to it by ensuring at least one of the following safeguards is implemented [DELETE AS APPLICABLE]:

We will only transfer your personal data to countries that have been deemed to provide an adequate level of protection for personal data.
Where we use certain service providers, we may use specific contracts approved for use in the UK which give personal data the same protection it has in the UK.
[OTHER].

Please contact us if you want further information on the specific mechanism used by us when transferring your personal data out of the UK.

Data security

We have put in place appropriate security measures such as encryption 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 process your personal data on our instructions and they are subject to a duty of confidentiality. Hence, we will keep all data provided by you on a secured-basis by applying standard practice technical and organisational measures to protect your data.

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.

Data retention
1. How long will you use my personal data for?

We will only retain your personal data for as long as reasonably necessary to fulfil the purposes we collected it for, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, regulatory, tax, accounting or reporting requirements. We may retain your personal data for a longer period in the event of a complaint or if we reasonably believe there is a prospect of litigation in respect to our relationship with you.

If you are a User, we follow advice from the Department of Health and the British Medical Association on how long to keep information found in your medical records. This is called a 'retention period'.

We might also keep some information that does not necessarily identify you in order to improve our business and services.

To determine the appropriate retention period for personal data, please refer to the table below:

Your information	How long we keep it (its 'retention period')
Video consultations	Video consultations are kept for a period of 6 years from the date on which the Video Consultation is held (although that period of time could change if our product or services change).
Voice (or audio) consultations	Voice consultations are kept for a period of 6 years from the date on which the Voice Consultation is held (although that period of time could change if our product or services change).
Maternity records	We keep your maternity records for a period of 25 years following the birth of your last child.
Records on any treatment for a mental disorder (as described in mental health legislation)	We keep your records for 20 years after the date of your last consultation. Or 8 years after your death if that is sooner.

Your legal rights

Under certain circumstances, you have rights under data protection law in relation to your personal data. Please click on the links below to find out more about these rights:

Request access to your personal data.
Request correction of your personal data.
Request erasure of your personal data.
Object to processing of your personal data.
Request restriction of processing your personal data.
Request transfer of your personal data.
Right to withdraw consent.

If you wish to exercise any of the rights set out above, please contact us.

No fee usually required

You will not have to pay a fee to access your personal data (or to exercise any of the other rights). However, we may charge a reasonable fee if your request is clearly unfounded, repetitive or excessive. Alternatively, we could refuse to comply with your request in these circumstances.

What we may need from you

We may need to request specific information from you to help us confirm your identity and ensure your right to access your personal data (or to exercise any of your other rights). This is a security measure to ensure that personal data is not disclosed to any person who has no right to receive it. We may also contact you to ask you for further information in relation to your request to speed up our response.

Time limit to respond

We try to respond to all legitimate requests within one month. Occasionally it could take us longer than a month if your request is particularly complex or you have made a number of requests. In this case, we will notify you and keep you updated.

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

THIRD PARTIES

Internal Third Parties

Other companies in the My Caring Pod Group acting as joint controllers or processors and who are based [SPECIFIC COUNTRIES] and provide IT and system administration services and undertake leadership reporting.

External Third Parties

Service providers acting as processors based in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland who provide IT and system administration services.
Professional advisers acting as processors or joint controllers including lawyers, bankers, auditors and insurers based in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland who provide consultancy, banking, legal, insurance and accounting services.
HM Revenue & Customs, regulators and other authorities acting as processors or joint controllers based in the United Kingdom who require reporting of processing activities in certain circumstances.
Your employer, whether you are a user or a medical practitioner.
If you are a User, Healthcare Providers where your health information is needed for your treatment or care.

Healthcare Providers

Our clinical partners who we work with jointly or to provide you with a follow-up service.
Hospitals.
Accident & Emergency (A&E) services.
Pharmacies and pharmacists.
Your medical practitioner, including your GP.
Specialist referral services.
Testing service providers.
Diagnosis centres chosen by you for prescribed procedures (e.g., scans, X-rays).
Any other health and care bodies as may be required, including regulatory bodies.

YOUR LEGAL RIGHTS

You have the right to:

Request access to your personal data (commonly known as a "data subject access request"). This enables you to receive a copy of the personal data we hold about you and to check that we are lawfully processing it.

Request correction of the personal data that we hold about you. This enables you to have any incomplete or inaccurate data we hold about you corrected, though we may need to verify the accuracy of the new data you provide to us.

Request erasure of your personal data. This enables you to ask us to delete or remove personal data where there is no good reason for us continuing to process it. You also have the right to ask us to delete or remove your personal data where you have successfully exercised your right to object to processing (see below), where we may have processed your information unlawfully or where we are required to erase your personal data to comply with local law. Note, however, that we may not always be able to comply with your request of erasure for specific legal reasons which will be notified to you, if applicable, at the time of your request.

Object to processing of your personal data where we are relying on a legitimate interest (or those of a third party) and there is something about your particular situation which makes you want to object to processing on this ground as you feel it impacts on your fundamental rights and freedoms. You also have the right to object where we are processing your personal data for direct marketing purposes. In some cases, we may demonstrate that we have compelling legitimate grounds to process your information which override your rights and freedoms.

Request restriction of processing of your personal data. This enables you to ask us to suspend the processing of your personal data in the following scenarios:

If you want us to establish the data's accuracy.
Where our use of the data is unlawful but you do not want us to erase it.
Where you need us to hold the data even if we no longer require it as you need it to establish, exercise or defend legal claims.
You have objected to our use of your data but we need to verify whether we have overriding legitimate grounds to use it.

Request the transfer of your personal data to you or to a third party. We will provide to you, or a third party you have chosen, your personal data in a structured, commonly used, machine-readable format. Note that this right only applies to automated information which you initially provided consent for us to use or where we used the information to perform a contract with you.

Withdraw consent at any time where we are relying on consent to process your personal data. However, this will not affect the lawfulness of any processing carried out before you withdraw your consent. If you withdraw your consent, we may not be able to provide certain products or services to you. We will advise you if this is the case at the time you withdraw your consent.

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