Privacy Policy

Sophie Skardon Nutritional and Herbal Therapist London and Essex

Sophie Skardon (referred to as "we", "us" or "our" in this privacy policy) operates www.sophieskardon.com (the "Site") and is the data controller responsible for your personal data. This page informs you of our policies regarding the collection, use, disclosure and secure storage of Personal Information we receive from users of the Site, especially in the context of nutritional therapy services.

We, as nutritional therapists, are committed to maintaining the privacy and protection of your personal information. By using the Site, you agree to the collection and use of information in accordance with this policy.

This notice does not provide exhaustive detail. However, we are happy to provide any additional information or explanation needed. Any requests for this should be sent to hello@sophieskardon.com. We keep our Privacy Notice under regular review. This Privacy Notice was last reviewed in January 2024

How we collect and use (process) your data:

We undertake at all times to protect your personal data, including any health and contact details, in a manner which is consistent with our duty of professional confidence and the requirements of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) concerning data protection. We will also take reasonable security measures to protect your personal data storage.

As part of our nutritional therapy services, we may ask you to provide us with certain personally identifiable information that is relevant to your health and wellness. This information may include but is not limited to your name, contact details, health history, dietary preferences, and lifestyle information ("Personal Information").

We collect and use your Personal Information to provide personalised nutritional advice, assess your health needs, and offer ongoing support. Your information is treated with the utmost confidentiality and is securely stored.

You provide us with personal data in the following ways:

By completing a nutritional therapy questionnaire
By signing a terms of engagement form
During a nutritional therapy consultation
Through email, over the telephone or by post.

This may include the following information:

Basic details such as name, address, contact details and next of kin
Details of contact we have had with you such as referrals and appointment requests
Health information including your previous medical history, dietary, lifestyle, supplement and medicine details, biochemical test results, clinic notes and health improvement plans
GP contact information.

We use this information in order to provide you with direct healthcare. This means that the legal basis of our holding your personal data is for legitimate interest. Following completion of your last consultation we retain your personal data for the period defined by our professional association, and our registrant body, The Association of Naturopathic Practitioners (ANP) and General Naturopathic Council (GNC). This enables us to process any further queries you may have. In this case the legal basis of our holding your personal data is for contract administration.

Do we share your information with other organisations?

We will keep information about you confidential. We will only disclose your information with other third parties with your express consent with the exception of the following categories of third parties:

Our professional body, GNC and professional association, ANP, for the processing of a complaint made by you.
Any contractors and advisors that provide a service to us or act as our agents on the understanding that they keep the information confidential.
We may share your information with supplement companies and biochemical testing companies as part of providing you with direct healthcare. We will not include any sensitive information. We will seek your express consent before sharing your information with your GP or other healthcare providers.
We may share your case history in an anonymised form with our peers for the purpose of professional development. This may be at clinical supervision meetings, conferences, online forums, and through publishing in medical journals, trade magazines or online professional sites. We will seek your explicit consent before processing your data in this way.

What are your rights?

Every individual has the right to see, amend, delete or have a copy, of data held that can identify you, with some exceptions. You do not need to give a reason to see your data.

If you want to access your data, you must make a subject access request in writing to hello@sophieskardon.com. Under special circumstances, some information may be withheld. We shall respond within 20 working days from the point of receiving the request and all necessary information from you. Our response will include the details of the personal data we hold on you including:

Sources from which we acquired the information
The purposes of processing the information
Persons or entities with whom we are sharing the information

You have the right, subject to exemptions, to ask to:

Have your information deleted
Have your information corrected or updated where it is no longer accurate
Ask us to stop processing information about you where we are not required to do so by law or in accordance with the professional association and GNC guidelines.
Receive a copy of your personal data, which you have provided to us, in a structured, commonly used and machine readable format and have the right to transmit that data to another controller, without hindrance from us.
Object at any time to the processing of personal data concerning you

We do not carry out any automated processing, which may lead to automated decision based on your personal data.
If you would like to invoke any of the above rights then please write to the Data Controller at hello@sophieskardon.com.

What safeguards are in place to ensure data that identifies me is secure?

We only use information that may identify you in accordance with GDPR. This requires us to process personal data only if there is a legitimate basis for doing so and that any processing must be fair and lawful. Within the health sector, we also have to follow the common law duty of confidence, which means that where identifiable information about you has been given in confidence, it should be treated as confidential and only shared for the purpose of providing direct healthcare. We will protect your information, inform you of how your information will be used, and allow you to decide if and how your information can be shared.

We also ensure the information we hold is kept in secure locations, protect personal and confidential information held on equipment such as laptops with encryption (which masks data so that unauthorised users cannot see or make sense of it). Sophie Skardon Nutritional Therapist is registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) as a data controller and collects data for a variety of purposes. A copy of the registration is available through the ICO website (search by business name).

We prioritise the security of your Personal Information. While we use industry-standard security measures to protect your data, it's important to note that no method of transmission over the Internet or electronic storage is 100% secure.

Log Data

In addition to Personal Information, we may collect Log Data, including technical information about your computer and browsing activity, to optimise our Site and services. This may include your computer's Internet Protocol ("IP") address, browser type, browser version, the pages of our Site that you visit, and the time and date of your visit.

To enhance your experience, we may use "cookies" to collect information about your usage patterns on our Site. Cookies are essential for certain functionalities, and you can manage your cookie preferences through your browser settings.

Changes to This Privacy Policy:

This Privacy Policy is effective as of 25th January 2024 and may be updated to reflect changes in our services or regulatory requirements. We encourage you to review this Privacy Policy periodically. Your continued use of our services after any modifications signify your acceptance of the updated terms.

Complaints:

If you have a complaint regarding the use of your personal data then please contact us by writing to the Data Controller at hello@sophieskardon.com and we will do our best to help you. If your complaint is not resolved to your satisfaction and you wish to make a formal complaint to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), you can contact them on 01625 545745 or 0303 1231113.

photo credit @jamiegray_studio