Privacy Policy

About this privacy policy

MARA is committed to protecting the privacy of its users and clients and we comply with our obligations under the Regulation (EU) 2016/679 (General Data Protection Regulation) This Privacy Policy explains how MARA will control and process any information that you supply to us or that is collected from you or is received about you.

If we change this Privacy Policy we will post an updated version of this Privacy Policy on the website to keep you aware of what information is collected, how it is used and under what circumstances we may disclose it.

Why is this important?

MARA will always use your information in accordance with the permissions granted by you (your consent) and in accordance with GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018.

Please note this Privacy Policy does not apply to communications you may have with a third party or if we use a third party to help provide a service (e.g. video conferencing).

Does MARA share your information with anyone else?

MARA is the sole owner of any information collected on this site. We do not sell, share, or rent this information to any other organisation in any way other than what has been detailed in this Privacy Policy.

What information do we collect about you?

MARA does need information about you for a variety of reasons, including providing the treatment services that you request. These come from a variety of sources. For example, when you visit this website or our clinic, we may collect certain information about your computer hardware and software, this includes:

  • Your IP address;
  • Browser type;
  • Operating system;
  • Access times; and
  • Referring website addresses

We do not store nor collect personal information from other sources, such as public records or private organisations.

We also collect information from the technology that is used to view our site which we use to analyse trends and administer the site. The data collected to enable us to do this is anonymous and does not identify you as an individual. This is done automatically, without asking you for the information.

What information might we be asking about you?

You may send us, or we may ask you for information, or we may be sent information by a third party or we may create information as follows:

  • Your full name;
  • Your address and postcode;
  • Your contact information (such as your email address, telephone number and mobile telephone number);
  • General information about yourself (such as your personal or professional interests, your experience of our services and products or other services and products and your contact preferences);
  • Proof of Identification;
  • As a client, we will require all relevant information necessary for your treatment

MARA may, in limited circumstances, disclose your Information to third parties:

  • to comply with any legal obligation (if directed by a court order for example)
  • or in order to enforce or apply MARA’s terms and conditions and other agreements (when collecting debts for example)
  • protect the rights, property, or safety of our clients, staff, or others. This includes exchanging information with other companies and organisations for fraud protection.

What will we use your information for?

MARA may use your information in the following ways:

  • To provide an acupuncture service;
  • To ensure that the content on our website is presented in the most effective manner for you and your computer;
  • To enable you to use the interactive features of our website;
  • To contact you to answer any queries you may have;
 

On what legal basis is MARA allowed to have (control) and process your information?

In order for us to be allowed to have your data, we need to determine how we are allowed to use your information. This is known as a “legal basis”, and any organisation has a choice of six. If the organisation cannot use one of the six, it must not have the information. we have six to choose from:

  • Consent
  • Provision of a Contract
  • Under a Legal Obligation
  • In your Vital Interests
  • Necessary for public interest or official authority
  • Our legitimate interests

1) Where you have provided CONSENT

  • We may use and process your personal information where you have consented for us to do so for the following purpose:
  • to supply information about MARA, its activities, reports and news, and for any marketing purposes.

Using Consent means we will be asking you beforehand, and recording your decision.  Regardless of your decision, your information will not be passed, sold or given to any third parties for the purposes of marketing. You may change or withdraw your consent for us to use your information in any of these ways at any time. Please see the “Withdrawing your consent” section.

2) Where required to perform a CONTRACT with you

There are times when we need your personal information to process where it is necessary for the performance of a contract with you or in order to take steps at your request before entering into a contract with you including for the following purposes:

  • As contractors and sub-contractors

For example, you ask us for a brochure or literature, we need your name and address in order to send you the brochure or literature).

3) Where required to comply with our LEGAL OBLIGATIONS

At times, another Law requires us to collect, use, or share information- which means we have a legal obligation to do so and do not have a choice. In this instance, examples include:

  • to identify you when you contact us; and
  • to verify the accuracy of data that we hold about you.

4) Where it is in your VITAL INTEREST

We may use your personal information without your consent if we consider it in your vital interests to do so. In other words, using your information in this way will prevent or reduce any potential harm to you.

5) Necessary for public interest or official authority

We collect the information included on the Covid-19 Medical Screening Questionnaire, which includes your name, contact details and information collected in order to determine whether you may be displaying symptoms of Covid-19 or may have recently been exposed to Covid19. This includes high level information about your state of health and your possible contact with Covid-19 patients. We process this personal data for the following purposes:

  • To pursue our legitimate interests, in particular we will use your information to assess your suitability for entry to the clinic premises in order to protect your health and safety and that of MARA staff. Where this involves your sensitive data, this is also done for reasons of public health;
  • For the purposes which are required by law in response to requests by government or law enforcement authorities conducting an investigation, or in accordance with our statutory duties.

Personal data may be shared with government authorities and/or law enforcement officials if required for the purposes above, if mandated by law or if required for the legal protection of our legitimate interests in compliance with applicable laws.

6) Where there is a LEGITIMATE INTEREST

MARA will be using legitimate interest as a basis for using your personal information when you make contact with us or request information from us and will be used until you become a client of ours. Once you become a client, we have a legal obligation to process your information to provide client services.

How we look after your “special category” of information

In addition to the six legal bases above, we recognise that the information we have about your health is known as “special category” information”.

As a client, we will be relying on your consent to store and otherwise process the health data that you provide us to allow us to provide treatment to you.

When using your special category personal data we will use it in accordance with UK law and provide suitable and specific measures to safeguard your fundamental rights and interests.

How we use your information

We use your personal information to provide our services to you, and to help with that (for example, booking and managing your appointments). Your information may also be used to investigate incidents and complaints.

What are your rights as a data subject?

You have a number of rights in relation to your personal information under the data protection laws. In relation to these rights, we may ask you for information to confirm your identity and, where applicable, to help us to search for your personal information. Except in rare cases, we will respond to you within 30 days after we have received this information or, where no such information is required, after we have received your request.

1) What about accessing your personal information?

You have the right to ask for a copy of the information that we hold about you by emailing or writing to us at the address at the end of this policy. We may not provide you with a copy of your personal information if this concerns other individuals or we have another lawful reason to withhold that information.

2) What about correcting and updating your personal information?

The accuracy of your information is important to us and if you change your name or address/email address, or you discover that any of the other information we hold is inaccurate or out of date, please let us know by contacting us in any of the contact details in this policy.

Please note that while MARA  will endeavour to make the updates as promptly as possible, communications may be sent using the original details until the changes have been processed.

3) What about withdrawing your consent?

Where we rely on your consent as the legal basis for processing your personal information, as set out under “How your information is used”, you may withdraw your consent at any time by contacting us using the details at the end of this policy. If you would like to withdraw your consent to which you previously opted in, you can also do so by contacting us either by telephone, post or e-mail. If you withdraw your consent, our use of your personal information before you withdraw is still lawful.

4) What about erasing your personal information or restricting its processing

In certain circumstances, you may ask for your personal information to be removed from our systems by emailing or writing to us at the address at the end of this policy. Unless there is a reason that the law allows us to use your personal information for longer, we will make reasonable efforts to comply with your request.

You may also ask us to restrict processing your personal information in the following situations:

  • where you believe it is unlawful for us to do so;
  • where you have objected to its use and our investigation is pending or you require us to keep it in connection with legal proceedings.

In these situations, we may only process your personal information whilst its processing is restricted if we have your consent or are legally permitted to do so, for example for your health, for storage purposes, to protect the rights of another individual or company or in connection with legal proceedings.

Do we use your information for Marketing?

From time to time, and where you have given your permission to do so, MARA may wish to contact you about marketing.

We will only contact you if you have consented. If you decide you do not want to receive those marketing communications, you can unsubscribe using the following methods:

By writing to the Data Controller at our registered office address:
The Old Barracks, Main Street, Clane, Co. Kildare

On each marketing communication, there will also be an opportunity for you to unsubscribe.

How long do we hold onto your data?

We’ll store your information for as long as we need to in order to provide services to you and longer if required to protect our legitimate interests such as defending a claim. We’ll keep some personal information for a reasonable period after you cease services with us in case you decide to use our services again.

Website security/cookies

Our website may contain links to other websites run by other organisations which we do not control. This policy does not apply to those other websites and apps‚ so we encourage you to read their privacy statements. We are not responsible for the privacy policies and practices of other websites and apps (even if you access them using links that we provide) and we provide links to those websites solely for your information and convenience. We specifically disclaim responsibility for their content, privacy practices and terms of use, and we make no endorsements, representations or promises about their accuracy, content or thoroughness. Your disclosure of personal information to third party websites is at your own risk.

Similarly, we may offer you services which are hosted by a third party: in this circumstance we do not control the information you provide to such third parties. This policy does not apply to those other websites and apps‚ so we encourage you to read their privacy statements. We specifically disclaim responsibility for their content, privacy practices and terms of use, and we make no endorsements, representations or promises about their accuracy, content or thoroughness. Your disclosure of personal information to third party websites is at your own risk.

In addition, if you linked to our website from a third-party website, we cannot be responsible for the privacy policies and practices of the owners and operators of that third party website and recommend that you check the policy of that third party website.

Cookies

This Cookie Policy forms part of our overall Privacy Policy.

What is a cookie?

A cookie is a small piece of data that may be stored on your computer or mobile device. It allows a website “remember” your actions or preferences over a length of time.

How are they used on this site?

This site uses 2 different types of cookie,

  • Session Cookies
  • Persistent Cookies

Session Cookies are temporary cookies that are not stored on your computer or mobile device. They are used as part of the registration process for financial security purposes. A session cookie is also used to remember your language preference when viewing the site. These session cookies are erased when you close your browser, or after 20 minutes of inactivity.

Persistent Cookies are those placed on your computer or mobile device for a pre-determined length of time when you visit this site. This site only places cookies that are specific to this site.

We use cookies in several ways. Cookie files are used to appreciate how you go through our website so that we may personalise your experience at our website. Cookies are also used to determine whether you have visited our website before, and track the effectiveness of our advertising and marketing by monitoring whether you came to our website from a particular Internet address or advertisement.

Cookies can also be used to assist you to save and retrieve passwords and any other information and preferences you use on our website, so that you do not have to re-enter these details every time you visit our website.

Cookies cannot and will not be used by us to uncover any additional personal information from your computer that you have not previously and voluntarily given us. The majority of web browsers will allow you to disable the cookies you don’t want should you wish to opt out of using them on our site. Please be aware that changing your cookie settings will affect all websites you visit unless you specify otherwise. Disabling cookies may also affect your browsing experience as some website functionalities, such as logging in, will cease to work without them.

Third Party Cookies

Our websites may use third party embedded content from external providers such as Google. Cookies may be put in place by these sites in order for this content to function, however these cookies are not managed by us and data collected from them may be stored outside the EEA.

We cannot be responsible for the security and content of such third-party websites. So make sure you read that company’s privacy and cookies policies before using or putting your personal information on their site.

You can find out more about our third parties privacy policies by reading their Privacy Policies:

Google: https://www.google.com/intl/en/policies/privacy

Google Analytics

We use Google Analytics to analyse our websites’ performance. The information Google Analytics gathers using our website’s cookies generates generic reports about the use of our website.

Will we make changes to this policy?

We may review this policy from time to time and any changes will be notified to you by posting an updated version on our website. Any changes will take on the date on which we post the modified terms on our website. We recommend you regularly check for changes and review this policy when you visit our website. If you do not agree with any aspect of the updated policy, you must promptly notify us and cease using our services.

Enforcement

If for some reason you believe MARA has not adhered to this Privacy Policy, please notify us by email using the email address: info@fertilityacupuncture.ie and we will do our best to determine and correct the problem promptly. Be certain to use the words “Privacy Policy” in the Subject line.

MARA
The Old Barracks
Clane
Co. Kildare
info@fertilityacupuncture.ie