Data Protection Statement – Information collection and use
The Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA 2018) is the UK’s implementation of the General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR).
This regulation lays down rules that protect the processing of personal data.
Under these regulations, you have the right to find out what information the government and other organisations store about you. These include the right to be informed about how your data is being used, how to access personal data and how to have data erased.
UK GDPR in fertility clinics
UK GDPR affects all professionals working in UK fertility clinic as the data processed can be sensitive. Personal health data is defined as data ‘related to the physical or mental health of a natural person, including the provision of health care services, which reveal information about his or her health status’.
Data Protection
X&Y Fertility is classed as a “Data Controller” under UK GDPR and is responsible for the processing of client data. As such, we strictly adhere to the rules of the data protection laws to ensure the security of personal information.
Under no circumstances do we transfer gathered data to a third party without legal basis and unless you give us permission to do so. Our privacy policy is provided in detail at the end of this blog and gives more details on how we store and process your information and how you can access it and is accessible on our website.
Website links accessed via X&Y Fertility
Our website contains links to other websites. Please be aware we aren't responsible for the privacy practices of those websites. We therefore encourage you to be aware that if you leave our site, we recommend that you read the privacy statements provided by other websites.
To ensure we continue to meet the UK’s legal requirements, we may have adapt our Data Protection Policy from time to time. Therefore, please note that an updated data protection declaration may apply if you visit our website again.
If you have any questions about our privacy policy, feel free to contact our Data Controller at: X&Y Fertility, 144a New Walk, Leicester LE1 7JA or via email at: info@xyfertility.co.uk
X&Y Fertility's Privacy Policy
About this privacy policy
X&Y Fertility Ltd is committed to protecting user privacy. This policy explains how we control and process any information that is supplied by or collected about you.
Spermdoctor.co.uk is a subsidiary of X&Y Fertility Ltd, so all references to ‘X&Y Fertility’ throughout our Privacy Policy also apply to the Spermdoctor.co.uk
Why your privacy is important
As a client, we collect data about you. We will do our utmost to ensure the information we have is protected and used at the right time by the right people. X&Y Fertility will always use your information in accordance with the permissions granted by you and in accordance with the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR), tailored by the Data Protection Act 2018. 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).
What is a Data controller?
X&Y Fertility is known as a Data Controller. As such, we hold information and use this to provide our services to the best of our ability. You can contact the data controller at: X&Y Fertility, 144a New Walk, Leicester, Leicestershire, LE1 7JA.
Sharing your information
In order to provide our service, we work with third-parties such as labs for blood and sperm DNA testing. When we share your data with them, they are known as “data processors” and we have a written third-party agreement in place explaining what we are sharing, why and what their obligations are. Please see the the HFEA website for information on the HFEA Code of Practice Section 24 “Third Party Agreements”.
We may ask for the following information:
· Your full name
· Your address and postcode
· Proof of ID
· Your contact information (e.g. mobile number & email address
· Data about your health, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, or disability and any relevant information needed for your treatment or donation.
· For sperm donors, biometric data of fingerprints is kept.
· With your consent, we may disclose your Information to other health care providers who will assist with your care. If a third party is involved, X&Y Fertility has a duty to disclose or share information
o to protect the rights, property or safety of our patients, donors, staff, or others. This includes exchanging information with other companies and organisations for fraud protection.
o to comply with any legal obligation (e.g. if directed by a court order)
o to enforce any of X&Y Fertility’s terms and conditions.
We will use your information in the following ways:
· To ensure that the information we provide is presented effectively
· To ensure safeguarding
· For our internal record keeping
· To contact you to answer any queries you may have
On what legal basis is X&Y Fertility allowed to have process your information?
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:
1) VITAL INTEREST
We may use your personal information if it is in your vital interests to do so, e.g.to reduce/prevent any potential harm to you.
2) PUBLIC TASK
We do not use this for our personal information.
3) LEGITIMATE INTEREST
We use legitimate interest when you make contact with us or request information from us. If you become a patient/donor, we are legally obliged to process your information to provide our services.
4) CONSENT
If you have consented for us to do so, we may use your personal information for X&Y Fertility activities, e.g. if you have supplied s testimonial. This will only take place if we have asked you beforehand and you have signed your consent. You may change or withdraw your consent for us to use your information at any time.
We never pass, sell or give your data to any third parties for the purposes of marketing.
5) LEGAL OBLIGATIONS
We may have a legal obligation to:
· Uphold the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 1990 when providing fertility treatment to patients (your data will be processed using this legal basis)
· Verify the accuracy of data that we hold about you.
· Identify you when you contact us
· Assist the HMRC, to prevent and detect fraud, for benefits and tax administration and as part of an appeal.
6) CONTRACT
We need your personal information to process any contracts involved you.
How we look after your “special category” of information
Data we have about your health is special category” information. As such, we take more care over this than your personal information.
The law states that we have to choose one of nine legal bases. As a patient/donor, we will be using “medical diagnosis, the provision of health or social care or treatment or the management of health or social care systems”.
X&Y Fertility will also use your personal information about your health for reasons including:
· Local clinical audit
· Activity monitoring
· Production of datasets for national HFEA collection
· Responding to any public health emergency.
X&Y Fertility might also use special categories of personal information for research. This might include medical data, ethnicity, faith, gender and biometric information. This is in accordance with Part 9(2)(j) of the law, which allows us to conduct proportionate research or for statistical purposes. Please see this link.
We use your special category personal data in accordance with UK law and provide suitable and specific measures to safeguard your fundamental rights and interests.
How we use your information to support direct care
Providing healthcare to you involves booking and managing your appointments. This information may be used for clinical audit or to investigate any adverse incidents.
How we use your information to support other medical uses
We may use information about you to improve our patient/donor care. This includes medical research, monitoring and improving our services, and for medical purposes where we believe the public will benefit.
Your rights as a data subject
You have 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. We aim to 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.
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. We may not provide you with a copy of your personal information if this concerns other individuals or we have a lawful reason to withhold that information.
Correcting and updating your personal information
The accuracy of your information is important. If you change your name/address/email address, or you realise information that we hold is inaccurate/outdated, please let us know by contacting us. We will endeavour to make the updates as soon as we are informed.
Withdrawing your consent
You may withdraw your consent at any time by contacting us.
Objecting to our use of your personal information
If you object to us using your personal information, please contact us. If we agree that your objection is justified in accordance with your rights under data protection laws, we will permanently stop using your data accordingly. If not, we will provide you with our justification as to why we need to continue using your data. Your right to object will not apply where the information is being used for research or statistical purposes. You may also contest a decision made about you based on automated processing by contacting the data protection department.
Erasing your personal information or restricting its processing
You may ask for your personal information to be removed from our systems by contacting us. We will make reasonable efforts to comply with your request, in accordance with the law. You may 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.
Transferring your personal information in a structured data file
If you request a copy of that information in a structured data file, we will provide this to you electronically. If possible, we will send your personal information directly to another service provider if you request this. 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.
Using your information for Marketing
If you have given your consent, X&Y Fertility may wish to contact you about marketing. If you decide you do not want to receive those marketing communications, you can unsubscribe using by writing to the Data Controller at our registered office address:
X&Y Fertility, 144a New Walk, Leicester, Leicestershire, LE1 7JA.
Duration for holding data
X&Y Fertility follows a corporate retention and destruction policy is in line with our legal obligations under the HFE Act 1990 (as amended 2008).
Storing your information
The information that we collect is never transferred to and stored at a destination outside X&Y Fertility by a third party other than the HFEA. Please see the HFEA privacy policy. We take all steps reasonably necessary to ensure this data is stored and processed in line with UK GDPR and this HFEA requirement.
Website security
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 may offer you services which are hosted by a third-party (such as webinars, live social Q&A events and others). These are provided by a third party 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 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
Wix uses cookies on our website for analysis and to help administer the site. The data collected is anonymous.
Reporting fraud
We never send you emails asking for your personal Information. If you receive such an email or are asked to disclose this information by someone claiming to work for X&Y Fertility, please contact us immediately. Please also see this link.
Changes to this policy
If we make changed to this policy, we will post an updated version on our website and/or contact you by email. Any changes will take effect 7 days after the date of our email or the date on which we post the modified terms on our website, whichever is the earlier. 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.
Requesting information or making a complaint
If you have any questions, suggestions or complaints about the processing of your personal information or wish to contact us to amend/update your information or if you wish to access the information, we hold about you, please contact us using the details below:
X&Y Fertility
144a New Walk,
Leicester,
Leicestershire,
LE1 7JA
If you have any queries or concerns about how we use your information, please speak to the staff involved in your care. More detailed questions about how we use your information which cannot be discussed or resolved by a member of staff can be discussed with the Clinic Director at the X&Y Fertility clinic.
Complaints to the UK data protection regulator
You have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) if you are concerned about the way we have processed your personal information. Please visit the ICO’s website for further details or use the contact details below.
ICO Wycliffe House Wilmslow SK9 5AF
Alternatively, you can make a complaint to the HFEA
Should we change this Privacy Policy, we will post an updated version on our website to keep you aware of what Information is collected, how it is used and under what circumstances we may disclose it.