​Last Updated: 13 October 2025

​

Hereford Acupuncture Clinic ("we," "us," or "our") is committed to protecting and respecting your privacy. This policy explains what personal data we collect from you, how we use it, and your rights regarding your data.

​

1. Who We Are

Hereford Acupuncture Clinic is the data controller responsible for your personal information.

• Practitioner: Merle Hansen

• Address: Clinic 8, Much Birch, Herefordshire, HR2 8HU

• Email: hansenmerle848@gmail.com

• Phone: +44 7730 436788

​

2. What Information We Collect

We may collect and process the following types of personal data:

• Identity and Contact Data: Includes your first name, last name, email address, and telephone number.

• Health Data: Information about your health, symptoms, and medical history that you provide when booking an appointment or during a consultation. This is "special category data," and we process it only with your explicit consent to provide you with healthcare.

• Transaction Data: Details about payments to and from you, including information required by our payment processors (e.g., Stripe or Square). We do not store your full credit/debit card details.

• Technical Data: Includes your internet protocol (IP) address, browser type, and information about how you use our website, collected via cookies.  

​

3. How We Collect Your Information

We collect data in the following ways:

• Directly from You: When you fill in our contact form, book an appointment through our Wix Bookings system, or communicate with us via email or phone.  

• Automatically: As you interact with our website, we may automatically collect technical data about your equipment and browsing actions using cookies and similar technologies. Our website is hosted on the Wix.com platform.  

​

4. How We Use Your Information

We use your personal data for the following purposes:

• To provide our services, including scheduling and managing your appointments.  

• To communicate with you, including sending appointment confirmations and reminders.

• To process payments for our services.

• To respond to your inquiries submitted through our contact form.

• To comply with our legal and professional obligations regarding patient records.

• To improve and maintain our website and services.  

​

5. How We Store and Share Your Information

Your privacy is important to us.

• Storage: Our company is hosted on the Wix.com platform. Wix.com provides us with the online platform that allows us to offer our services to you. Your data may be stored through Wix.com’s data storage, databases, and the general Wix.com applications. They store your data on secure servers behind a firewall.  

• Sharing: We do not sell or rent your personal data to third parties. We will only share your data with trusted third-party service providers when necessary to provide our services, such as:

  • Wix.com: Our website and booking system provider.

  • Payment Processors (e.g., Stripe, Square): To securely handle payments.

  • Google Calendar: To sync our booking calendar and prevent scheduling conflicts.

• We will not share your information for marketing purposes with any outside companies.  

​

6. Data Retention

We will only retain your personal data for as long as necessary to fulfill the purposes we collected it for, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, accounting, or reporting requirements. As per our professional obligations, clinical records are retained for a period of 7 years from your last appointment.

​

7. Your Data Protection Rights

Under data protection law, you have rights including:

• The right to access: You have the right to request copies of your personal data.

• The right to rectification: You have the right to request that we correct any information you believe is inaccurate or complete information you believe is incomplete.

• The right to erasure: You have the right to request that we erase your personal data, under certain conditions.

• The right to restrict processing: You have the right to request that we restrict the processing of your personal data, under certain conditions.

• The right to object to processing: You have the right to object to our processing of your personal data, under certain conditions.

• The right to data portability: You have the right to request that we transfer the data that we have collected to another organization, or directly to you, under certain conditions.

​

If you make a request, we have one month to respond to you. To exercise any of these rights, please contact us at hansenmerle848@gmail.com.

​

8. Cookies

Our website uses cookies to enhance your browsing experience. Cookies are small text files placed on your computer to collect standard internet log information and visitor behavior information. When you visit our website, we may collect information from you automatically through cookies. For further information, you can manage your cookie preferences through the consent banner on our site.

 

9. Changes to Our Privacy Policy

We keep our privacy policy under regular review and place any updates on this web page.

​

10. How to Contact Us

If you have any questions about our privacy policy or the data we hold on you, please do not hesitate to contact us at hansenmerle848@gmail.com.

​​

11. How to Contact the Appropriate Authority

Should you wish to report a complaint or if you feel that we have not addressed your concern in a satisfactory manner, you may contact the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the UK's supervisory authority for data protection issues (www.ico.org.uk).