Privacy policy

Who we are

This policy explains how Smile Dental Center collects, uses, shares and protects your personal data when you use this website, book an appointment or contact us. Smile Dental Center decides why and how your data is used, so it is responsible for it (the data controller).

Facility licence number: DHA-F-0001

Address: Building 12, Floor 3, Al Khalidiyah Street, Abu Dhabi

Contact: info@dentacare-demo.ae, 02 555 0100

What this policy covers

This policy covers the website and the online services connected to it. When you are treated at the clinic, your health record is created and kept under the UAE health laws and the standards of the licensing health authority. That record is explained to you at the clinic and is not collected through the website forms.

Please do not send medical details through the website, in appointment notes or in messages. Tell your dentist in person.

Data we collect when you visit the website

• Technical data that every web server records, such as the page requested, the date and time, the type of browser and the IP address. Our hosting provider keeps these server logs for security and to keep the site working.
• Your choices on cookies and language, kept in small files on your device (see the cookie policy).
• What you send us when you contact us by phone, WhatsApp, email or in person: your name, phone number, email address and the content of your message.

Data we collect when you book online

To book, change, cancel or join a waiting list, we ask for:

• your name, mobile number and email address (the email is needed to send you the confirmation and the link to change or cancel);
• the branch, the treatment or service, the dentist if you choose one, and the date and time;
• notes for the reception team, if you write any, and whether the visit is an emergency;
• the same details for each person you book for (for example your children), which you give only with their guardian’s or their own permission.

The booking form does not ask for medical information. To protect your privacy, please do not write any in the notes.

To limit abuse of the form, we count requests per device using a one-way scrambled form of the IP address, which cannot be turned back into the address and is kept for one hour.

Data we collect when you pay online

When you pay a deposit or a requested amount online, we keep the amount, the currency, the reason shown on the request, the payment reference, the booking number and the status of the payment (paid, failed, refunded).

You enter your card or wallet details on the payment page of the licensed payment provider. We do not see them and we do not store them. The provider handles them under its own terms and privacy policy.

Data we use to ask for a review

After a completed visit we may send one short thank-you email with a link to review the clinic on Google. Every patient who completes a visit receives the same email and the same link, and we offer nothing in return for a review.

To remember that the email was sent, and to respect your wish not to receive it again, we keep only a one-way scrambled form of your email address, not the address itself. Every email contains an unsubscribe link that works immediately.

A review you write on Google is published by Google under its own terms and privacy policy.

Data we collect when you chat with our AI assistant

Our website or WhatsApp number may offer an AI assistant that answers questions about the clinic and collects the details for an appointment request. It collects what you write in the conversation, your phone number if you use WhatsApp, and the booking details you give it.

The assistant is a computer program, not a dentist. It does not give medical advice, and it does not confirm appointments: a member of our team confirms your appointment. Complaints, medical questions, payments, emergencies and changes to an existing appointment are passed to our staff.

Please do not write medical details, ID numbers or card numbers in the conversation.

To produce replies, the text of the conversation is processed by an artificial intelligence service provider that may operate outside the UAE (see the section on transfers outside the UAE).

Job applications

If you apply for a job, we use what you send (such as your CV and contact details) only to assess your application and to contact you about it. We keep it for as long as the vacancy is open and for a reasonable period after, unless you ask us to delete it sooner.

Why we use your data

• to respond to your messages and requests;
• to arrange, confirm, change and remind you of appointments, and to run the clinic’s schedule;
• to provide the dental care you ask for and to meet our duties under health laws;
• to receive payments and keep the records that accounting and the law require;
• to keep the website safe and working, and to improve it using information that does not identify you;
• to send you offers or news only if you have agreed.

On what basis we use your data

We use your personal data with your consent, which you give by a clear action such as ticking a box, submitting a form or choosing an option on the cookie notice. You can withdraw it at any time. We may also use it where the law allows it without consent, for example to carry out what you asked for (such as an appointment), to provide health care, to protect your vital interests, to meet a legal duty, or to establish or defend a legal claim.

Who we share your data with

We do not sell your personal data. We share it only as far as needed with:

• our dentists and clinic staff who need it to look after you;
• service providers who work for us under our instructions, such as website hosting and email delivery;
• the licensed payment provider you choose when you pay, which receives the details needed to process your payment and has its own privacy policy;
• the artificial intelligence service provider that runs our assistant;
• WhatsApp (Meta), if you contact us through it, under WhatsApp’s own terms and privacy policy;
• your insurer or the company that funds your treatment, when you ask us to or when your cover requires it;
• health authorities, courts and other public bodies, when the law requires it.

Transfers outside the UAE

Health data about services given in the UAE may not be stored, processed or transferred outside the UAE except in the cases the law allows (Federal Law No. 2 of 2019 on the use of information and communication technology in health fields, and the decisions made under it). We follow these rules.

We do not send health data or appointment details to advertising or statistics tools.

Some services we use, such as WhatsApp and the AI assistant, may process data outside the UAE. We use them only for the purposes in this policy, we tell you about them here, and you should not send health details through them.

How long we keep your data

• Health records created when you are treated are kept for at least 25 years from the date of the last health procedure, as the law requires.
• Booking data that is not part of the health record is kept for as long as needed to run your appointments, and is erased when you ask or when we no longer need it.
• Messages and enquiries are kept for as long as needed to deal with them and a reasonable time after.
• Data used for offers or news is kept until you withdraw your consent.
• Accounting records are kept for the period the law requires.

Your rights

You may ask us to:

• tell you what personal data we hold about you, why, who receives it and how long we keep it, and give you a copy;
• correct data that is wrong or incomplete;
• delete your data, where the law allows (we must keep health records for the period the law requires);
• restrict the use of your data in the cases the law lists, such as when you dispute its accuracy;
• stop using your data for offers or news;
• give you your data in a structured, machine-readable form, or send it to another provider where this is technically possible;
• not be subject to a decision made only by automated processing that seriously affects you. We take no such decisions: appointments are confirmed by our staff.

You may withdraw a consent you gave at any time, and this does not affect what we did before. To use a right, contact us (see the last section). We answer without undue delay, and normally within one month. We may need to confirm who you are first.

Exporting and deleting booking data

Our team can export or erase the booking data of a patient on request, from the booking system. Erasing booking data does not erase the health record, which is kept under the health laws.

How we protect your data

We use technical and organisational measures suited to the risk, such as access limited to staff who need the data, protected logins, encrypted connections (HTTPS) and the removal of data we no longer need. No system is completely secure. If a breach threatens your personal data, we will act on it and report it as the law requires.

Children

Parents or legal guardians should book and give consent for children and for persons who lack legal capacity. We do not knowingly collect personal data from a child through the website without a guardian’s involvement. If you believe we did, tell us and we will remove it.

Offers, news and messages

We send promotional messages (email, text or WhatsApp) only to people who have agreed to receive them, and you can stop them at any time. Messages that are part of your care or booking, such as an appointment confirmation or a link you asked for, are not promotional.

Cookies

Our cookie policy explains which files the website uses and how to control them: Cookie policy.

Other websites and apps

The website may link to other services, such as Google Maps, WhatsApp or social networks. When you open them, their own terms and privacy policies apply, and we are not responsible for them.

Changes to this policy

We may update this policy, for example when we add a service. The date of the latest update is shown at the top of the page.

Contact and complaints

To ask a question, use a right or make a complaint about how we handle your data, contact us: info@dentacare-demo.ae, 02 555 0100.

If you are not satisfied with our reply, you may complain to the competent authority, including the health authority that licenses the clinic and the authority responsible for personal data protection in the UAE.