Privacy Policy

Last Updated: 16/10/25

1. Introduction and Who We Are

Welcome to DS Eye Surgeon's privacy policy.

This privacy policy applies to our main website, dseyesurgeon.com, and our specialist service landing page, birminghamcataractclinic.co.uk (referred to as our 'websites'). Birmingham Cataract Clinic is a trading name of DS Eye Surgeon, which is the Data Controller and is responsible for all personal data collected through these websites.

DS Eye Surgeon respects your privacy and is committed to protecting your personal data in accordance with the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and Data Protection Act 2018. This privacy policy will inform you as to how we look after your personal data and tell you about your privacy rights and how the law protects you.

Contact Details:
Data Controller: DS Eye Surgeon
Email: contact@dseyesurgeon.com
Phone: 0121 630 4580

2. The Data We Collect About You

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

Identity and Contact Data: Name, email address, telephone number, and mailing address.
Special Category (Health) Data: Information about your medical conditions, symptoms, and clinical history necessary for your care.
Communication Data: Information you provide when you contact us via forms, email, phone, or messaging services.
Technical and Usage Data: Information about how you access and use our websites, including your IP address, browser type, and pages visited, collected via cookies and similar technologies.

3. How and Why We Use Your Personal Data

We will only use your personal data when the law allows us to. Most commonly, we use your data for the following purposes and on the following legal bases:

To Respond to Enquiries and Process Appointments: To fulfil our Contractual Necessity when you book services with us.
To Send Marketing/Promotional Material: With your Explicit Consent, which you may withdraw at any time.
For Website Improvement and Security: Based on our Legitimate Interests to improve our services and prevent fraud.

Communications with Our Clinic When you contact us by phone, email, or messaging services, we process your personal data to manage your enquiry and provide care.

Call Recording: Please be aware that telephone calls made to us via our VoIP service may be recorded for training, quality assurance, and record-keeping purposes. We will always inform you at the beginning of a call if it is being recorded and will proceed only with your consent.

Data from Website Forms (birminghamcataractclinic.co.uk) When you request our free PDF guide or book a complimentary eligibility review, we collect the personal information you voluntarily provide.

What we collect: Your Name, Email Address, and Phone Number.
Our legal basis: We process this data based on your Explicit Consent to fulfil that specific request.
How it is stored: This data is managed securely within Pabau.

Website Analytics (Google Analytics & Smartlook) We use Google Analytics and Smartlook (for session analysis) to understand user behaviour and improve our websites, based on your Consent (via our cookie banner) and our Legitimate Interests. Importantly, any information you type into forms on our website is masked and is not recorded by Smartlook.

4. Cookies and Google Ads Advertising

Our websites use cookies (small text files placed on your device). We use:

Essential Cookies: To enable core functions like appointment booking.
Analytics Cookies (Google Analytics, Smartlook): To collect anonymised data to help us improve the website.
Google Ads Conversion Tracking Cookies: To measure the effectiveness of our advertising campaigns by understanding when an ad click leads to a form submission.

Your consent for non-essential cookies is obtained via our cookie consent banner.

5. Data Sharing and Third-Party Processors

We do not sell your personal data. We only share data with trusted third parties who assist in operating our services and are bound by strict data processing agreements. These include:

Pabau: Our secure patient management and video consultation system.
Tuta (Tutanota): Our secure email communication provider.
YAY.com: Our VoIP telephone service provider.WhatsApp for
Business (Meta): To communicate with patients who contact us via this platform.
Smartlook: Our website user behaviour analytics provider.
Google: For advertising and website analytics.Regulatory
Authorities: When required by law.

6. International Data Transfers

While we are based in the UK, using services like WhatsApp for Business (Meta) involves the transfer of your data outside the UK. We ensure any such transfers are protected by legally approved mechanisms, such as Standard Contractual Clauses, to ensure your data is afforded the same protection it has in the UK.

7. Data Retention

We retain personal data only for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes we collected it for, including for satisfying any legal, accounting, or reporting requirements.

Appointment and Medical Records: Retained for a minimum of 7 years to comply with UK medical record-keeping laws.
Contact Form Inquiries: Retained for 2 years, or until a deletion request is made.
Marketing Data: Retained until you withdraw your consent.

8. Data Security Measures

We have put in place appropriate security measures to protect your data, including:

Encryption: Using Secure Sockets Layer (SSL/TLS) for all data transfers on our websites.
Access Controls: Limiting access to your personal data to authorised personnel only.
Secure Storage: Using systems compliant with NHS Digital standards.
Regular Audits: We conduct regular security reviews of our systems and procedures.

9. Your Legal Rights under UK GDPR

You have the right to:

Access a copy of the personal data we hold about you.
Rectification of inaccurate personal data.
Erasure of your personal data ('right to be forgotten').
Restrict the processing of your personal data.
Data Portability of your personal data.
Object to the processing of your personal data.
Withdraw Consent at any time for any data processing that is based on your consent.

To exercise any of these rights, please contact us at: Email: contact@dseyesurgeon.com Phone: 0121 630 4580

You also have the right to make a complaint at any time to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), the UK's 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.

10. Automated Decision-Making

We do not use any automated decision-making or profiling processes that would have a legal or similarly significant effect on you.