Who we are
We are Dental Choices, our website address is: dentalchoices.org
What personal data we collect and why we collect it
We collect personal data you actively provide when you leave a comment, register an account with us, or fill in a form (eg our contact form), and we also collect data you passively provide such as which of our pages you have visited and which links your have clicked.
Comments
When visitors leave comments on the site we collect the data shown in the comments form, and also the visitor’s IP address and browser user agent string to help spam detection.
An anonymised string created from your email address (also called a hash) may be provided to the Gravatar service to see if you are using it. You can find out more information by reading the Gravatar service privacy policy. After approval, your comment will be publicly visible, as will your name and profile picture in the context of your comment.
Media
If you upload images to the website, you should avoid uploading images with embedded location data (EXIF GPS) included. Visitors to the website can download and extract any location data from images on the website.
Contact forms
Our contact forms generate an email which is automatically sent to our email account and will be treated as a normal email. The data you provide in our contact forms is also stored on our website server but only accessible to our admin staff.
Cookies
This site uses cookies – small text files that are placed on your machine to help the site provide a better user experience. For example:
- If you leave a comment on our site you may opt-in to saving your name, email address and website in cookies. These are for your convenience so that you do not have to fill in your details again when you leave another comment. These cookies will last for one year.
- If you have an account and you log in to this site, we will set a temporary cookie to determine if your browser accepts cookies. This cookie contains no personal data and is discarded when you close your browser.
- When you log in, we will also set up several cookies to save your login information and your screen display choices. Login cookies last for two days, and screen options cookies last for a year. If you select “Remember Me”, your login will persist for two weeks. If you log out of your account, the login cookies will be removed.
- If you edit or publish an article, an additional cookie will be saved in your browser. This cookie includes no personal data and simply indicates the post ID of the article you just edited. It expires after 1 day.
As a rule, cookies will make your browsing experience better. However, you may prefer to disable cookies on this site and on others. The most effective way to do this is to disable cookies in your browser. We suggest consulting the Help section of your browser or taking a look at the About Cookies website which offers guidance for all modern browsers.
Embedded content from other websites
Articles on this site may include embedded content (e.g. videos, images, articles, maps, etc.). Embedded content from other websites behaves in the exact same way as if the visitor has visited the other website.
These websites may collect data about you, use cookies, embed additional third-party tracking, and monitor your interaction with that embedded content, including tracking your interaction with the embedded content if you have an account and are logged in to that website.
This website uses several products from Google. For information about Google’s data protection practices, please read Google’s Privacy Policy. This policy explains how Google treats your personal information and protects your privacy when you use the Service.
Analytics
We use Google Analytics to monitor usage of our website but we request that Google uses IP address anonymisation to help protect your privacy. Find out more by reading Google Analytics’ Data privacy and security policies.
Maps & Geocoding
We use Google Maps API to provide maps for our users and we use Google Geocoding API and Postcodes.io API to convert addresses and postcodes into geographic coordinates so that we can find local dentists. You can find out more by reading the Google Maps Terms of Service and Legal Notices and the Postcodes.io website.
ReCAPTCHA
We use Google reCAPTCHA to automate bot detection and help avoid getting spam. The reCAPTCHA service collects the following data from you:
- Cookies set by Google in the last 6 months
- The number of clicks (or taps) you make on that page
- The language setting in your browser
- The names and versions of plug-ins installed in your browser
- Information from the page you are viewing, including styling (CSS) and programming code (javascript objects)
- The date
Fundraising Activities
We are currently running a fundraiser through GoFundMe to support the development of new features for dentalchoices.org. By participating in this fundraiser, either by donating or sharing the link, you agree to the terms outlined in GoFundMe’s Privacy Policy. Any personal data collected by GoFundMe during this process is governed by their policy.
How we protect your data
We are committed to ensuring that your information is secure. In order to prevent unauthorised access or disclosure we have put in place suitable physical, electronic and managerial procedures to safeguard and secure the information we collect online.
Who we share your data with
As a general rule we treat all your data as confidential and do not share your data with any third parties. We certainly do not sell, rent or trade any personal information. However, if any police force, regulatory body or other public authority lawfully requests us to provide personal information, we may have to comply with that request, without being obliged to inform you.
How long we retain your data
If you provide us with your location, address or postcode, this information may be temporarily cached by our server to help minimise system resources used for page reloads and help you access our service as fast as possible.
If you leave a comment, the comment and its metadata may be retained indefinitely to help identify spam.
For users that register on our website (if any), we also store the personal information they provide in their user profile. All users can see, edit, or delete their personal information at any time (except they cannot change their username). Website administrators can also see and edit that information.
What rights you have over your data
If you have an account on this site, or have left comments, you can request to receive an exported file of the personal data we hold about you, including any data you have provided to us. You can also request that we erase any personal data we hold about you. This does not include any data we are obliged to keep for administrative, legal, or security purposes.
Where we send your data
If you provide your address or postcode, we send it to Google Geolocate API and/or Postcodes.io API in order to convert it into coordinates so that we can find your local dentists.
Visitor comment data may be checked through an automated spam detection service and malicious IP addresses may be shared with an automated security service.
Contact information
You can find out how to contact us on our Contact Page.