Optimax Privacy Policy

Modern information and communication technologies play a fundamental role in the activities of an organisation like Optimax. We are based in the United Kingdom. Our principal activities are:

Our Privacy Policy covers Optimax (the data controller in respect of this Privacy Policy) and its website.  Our head office is at 128 Finchley Road, London NW3 5HT.

 

You can access our website home page and browse our site without disclosing any personal data.

 

The MyOptimax area of the website provides secure access by using a username and password combination.  A valid email address is required to activate this service.  We protect the security of your information during transmission by using Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) software, which encrypts information you input.  This secure area of the website allows us to provide services such as allowing patients to manage their aftercare appointments.

 

Credit Card Information

All credit/debit card information entered via our website is transmitted via SSL to our card payment service provider.  Optimax does not store or have access to your full card details.

 

Automatic Collection of Information

In general it is Optimax’s policy not to collect any information without specifically informing an individual first.  Exceptions to this rule are explained below.

 

We passively collect non-personally identifiable information using ‘cookies’ and ‘action tags’. Cookies are small text files that are placed on your computer in order to identify (i) your web browser, (ii) the activities of your computer on our website and (iii) your activity in connection with our marketing efforts.  For example, cookies allow us to statistically monitor how you are using our website to help us improve our online offerings. We may also use cookies to determine the popularity of certain content areas. Cookiescan also allow a web server to recognise a user when they return to a website, for example automatically providing a 'Hello Mr/Mrs Smith' message.

 

In addition to any cookies that we place on your computer, cookies may also be placed on your computer by third parties that we use to display or serve advertisements or to collect Non-Personally Identifiable Information in order to provide advertising-related services. These companies do not collect personally identifiable information on our website and we do not share personally identifiable information with them.

 

You do not have to accept cookies to use our website. Although most browsers are initially set to accept cookies, you may reset your browser to notify you when you receive a cookie or to reject cookies generally. Most browsers offer instructions on how to do so in the ‘Help’ section of the toolbar. While you are not required to accept cookies to access our website, if you reject cookies, certain products, offerings, features, or resources of our website may not work properly and you may experience some loss of convenience.

 

‘Action tags’ also known as web beacons or gif tags, are a web technology used to help track website usage information, such as how many times a specific page has been viewed. Action tags are not placed on your computer. They are invisible to you and any portion of our website or e-mail sent on our behalf, may contain cookies that are associated with action tags that our located on our website.

 

We may select and use different third parties from time to time to track website usage through action tags on our Website and on our advertisements on other websites. Most Internet users already have a tracking cookie on their computer and tracking through the use of action tags is considered common practice in the industry. Periodically, upon our request, the third parties we use may report the anonymous data that they collect on our behalf back to us for our internal use and analysis and our treatment of this anonymous data is governed by the terms of this Privacy Policy.

 

By using cookies and action tags together, we are able to gain valuable information to improve our website and measure the effectiveness of our advertising and marketing campaigns. We do not disclose any of your personally identifiable information to our advertising partners through the use of cookies or action tags.

 

Please note that advertisers and other third parties may also use their own cookies or action tags when you click on their advertisement or link to their website or service, on or from our website. This Privacy Policy does not govern the use by such third-party websites or providers of third-party advertising.

 

We automatically log supplied Personal Data by means such as programming or we link information automatically logged by such means with Personal Data about specific individuals. We do this for customer administration and marketing purposes. 

 

There is no automatic collection of Personal Information.  All information is supplied to us with explicit permission, either by the patient contacting us, or by us asking the patient for the information.

 

We collect the personal data that you may volunteer while using our services. With explicit permission only, we collect personal data about our visitors from other sources, such as public records or bodies, or private organisations – examples of this may include relevant medical and optical records from your General Practitioner or your usual optician.  We do not knowingly collect or use personal data for any other purpose than the administration of your treatment, payments to us and for marketing analysis. If we wish to use your personal data for new purposes, we offer you the means to opt out of those new purposes by sending an email to enquiries@optimax.co.uk or calling Customer Services on 08705 143314.

 

The following personal data about you may be collected and held on our database. This will have either come directly from you or from other organisations (such as your General Practitioner or your usual optician, for example):

If you are applying for credit terms, we may hold the following data about you:   

We do not knowingly collect personal data from children. Where we unknowingly collect personal data on children, we treat this data as we would any other enquirer/patient data and apply adequate security measures to protect privacy. 

 

We may disclose your personal data to companies within the Optimax Group.  We will not disclose your personal data to other organisations outside the Optimax Group.

 

We do not give visitors to our website the option of using a secure transmission method to send us their Personal Data. We have implemented security policies, rules and technical measures to protect the Personal Data that we have under our control from:

All our employees and any Data Processors with access to (or an association with) the processing of personal data are obliged to respect the confidentiality of your personal data. We ensure that your personal data will not be disclosed to State Institutions and authorities except if required by law or other regulation.  We may pass relevant medical and optical records to your General Practitioner or usual optician but only after permission has been sought. 

 

You can ask us whether we are keeping personal data about you by emailing enquiries@optimax.co.uk or calling Customer Services on 08705 143314. On receipt of your written request, proof of your identity and a fee we will provide you with a readable copy of any Personal Data about you that we hold.  The fee for retrieval of data from our computer system is £10.  If you also require copies of medical files that are held on paper then the fee is £20.  We allow you to challenge the personal data that we hold about you and, where appropriate, you may have the data rectified, amended or completed.  We do not reserve the right to refuse to provide you with a copy of your personal data.

 

 

This privacy policy is compliant with the United Kingdom's Data Protection Act (1998) and The European Data Protection Directive 95/46/EC.  In order to maintain compliance with the above privacy instrument, we are voluntarily committed to a Self-Assessment Procedure based on Caldicott Principles and the Data Protection Act (1988). 

 

If you have an enquiry or concern about our Privacy Policy, the first point of contact is Customer Services at 172 Lincoln Road, Peterborough PE1 2NW.  They may also be contacted by telephone on 08705 14 33 14 or by emailing enquiries@optimax.co.uk.  All Data Subject Access requests must be received in writing.  If you do not feel satisfied with the response you receive from Customer Services, concerns relating to data privacy should be addressed to Steve Davis, Head of Technology, Optimax, 128 Finchley Road, LONDON, NW3 5HT.  If you are still not satisfied with our response to your concern, you may wish to contact: