We are committed to protecting your privacy as you use our services. Please read on to learn more about the measures that we have in place to keep your data protected, including what happens if you choose not to share certain information with us.

By using our service, you acknowledge that the personal information that you provide to us will be used in accordance with our privacy policy.

NowChemist.com are trading style of WS Health Services Ltd (Company No. 12437945) of 210 Bury New Road, Manchester , M45 6GG referred to as “WS”hereafter. WS operate NowChemist.com and are the data controller for the purposes of the Data Protection Act 2018, the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and any other data protection legislation applicable in the UK where relevant.

Any questions with respect to your privacy and the use of your personal data on our website are welcome by contacting us.

External links may be present on our website, it is advised to check privacy policies of external websites where relevant when submitting personal information as WS is not responsible for data policies, functions or content of external websites.

 

Information we collect ?

You are not required by law or by any contract with us to provide us with personal information. If you  visit our website, we will only require your personal information to the extent that it is necessary for us to provide you with a service at your request. Such occurrences are when you contact us, register an account on our website or request an online consultation or purchase a products from ourselves.

 

Information provide to us

We may collect and store personal information about you whenever you use our services. This includes when; making enquiries about our products/services, as part of a clinical consultation with or facilitated by us, when purchasing medications or other products or services from us, when you are making a supply of a product or service to ourselves, when browsing and using our website, contacting us via any open contact methods at the time this includes mailing or emailing.

 

Information collected may include the following;

Your full name and title; date of birth; age; gender; marital status.

Contact information which may include your postal address, email address and telephone/mobile numbers.

Information about your health including your current health and wellbeing status, medical history and records including current treatments or medications.

Any correspondence or information provided by you into your account or dedicated portal (this includes but is not limited to prescriber, pharmacy or customer services correspondence that you have )

Information about your current and historical purchases with us.

Payment information ( handled securely by our payment merchant at the time )

Additional information relevant to your use of our website and services, such as your marketing preferences, feedback or responses to surveys.

 We understand that any information concerning your health is especially sensitive further it is classed into a special category when it comes to  personal data. With this in mind, we take extra steps to ensure that any special category data is kept secure and confidential.  As well as only ensuring that such data is only collected for a purpose that is necessary we also only retain such data  for a length of time that is necessary.

 

Information Collected When You Visit NowChemist.com

You must be at least 18 years old to use our website and services. We do not knowingly collect any personal data relating to children. We use cookies to make your experience better.

It’s as simple as that. We want to make sure you’re having the best possible experience on our website, and we can’t do that without knowing what kind of stuff you like and what you don’t like. That’s why we collect information about your visit in order to show you more relevant content and make sure that your privacy is protected. We also use this information to help us improve our website—if you’ve been having trouble with a specific page, for example, we’ll know about it so we can fix the problem!

We’ve put together a cookie policy that explains everything in detail—take a look if you want to see exactly how we work and why we work this way.

Cookies

 A cookie is an electronic file that a website server places on your computer’s hard drive when you visit their site. By storing information in cookies, website operators can collect and store information about your browsing habits, such as whether you have visited the site before. Cookies are used for multiple reasons: they help websites operate more efficiently, provide information to website owners about how users use their sites, and to show you ads that are relevant to you.

 We use cookies to help us provide you with a better service.

We use both persistent cookies and session cookies. Persistent cookies stay on your computer until they expire, while session cookies only last as long as you’re using the website!

We use both types of cookies to monitor how people use our website, including estimating audience size and patterns of use, so we can help us provide you with a better service. We also use them to make it easier for you to use the website on future visits, and allow us to personalise the content of the website based on information about your preferences.

The ICC UK Cookie Guide helps categorise different types of cookies, the following cookies on our website.

Strictly Necessary Cookies – These are absolutely essential for the operation of the website and which without we cannot provide you the services you require through our website.

Functionality Cookies – help to recognise you and your preferences when you are returning to our website the purposes of which is to personalise content for you and to provide an improved user experience.

Analytical/Performance Cookies – help us to count and monitor how users navigate our website with the aim of improving the ease of use or accessibility of our website. Google analytics are also used as part of this aim to improve the use of our website and monitor traffic.

Targeting/Advertising Cookies – These cookies are used to help us show you adverts which are more relevant to you and your interests. We also use these to reduce  the number of times you see the same advertisement and assist us in analysing the performance of advertising campaigns. They are usually placed by advertising networks with the website operator’s permission. They remember the sites you have visited and this information is shared with other organisations such as advertisers.

 

What Cookies Do We Use ?

You can find a full list of first party cookies placed onto your browsing device by NowChemist.com in our privacy preference sections, this can also be accessed when you first visit the site.

Third party cookies are also used as part of your browsing experience on NowChemist.com, this is in the form of analytical and advertising cookies from Facebook and Google

Read more about Facebook Advertising

Read more about Google privacy practices and Google Ads.

For any further information on cookies please contact us.

 

Information we collect about you from other sources

We may collect information about you from other available sources. The following may be used;

• Publicly available information, from sources such as the Electoral Roll or Companies House
• Publicly shared information by you, including on social media (primarily with respect to job applications)
• Information from third party databases such as identity and credit reference agencies, which may include details about your home.
• Information from your other healthcare providers (only with your consent, or where it is necessary for us to provide our service)

This list is not exhaustive and, we may need to collect additional data for the purposes set out in this policy for specific instances.

 

 

Information we may receive about you from other websites or third parties

This may include information we receive about you if you use any of the other websites that we operate or the other services that we provide, in which case it would have been specified in respective policies when we collected that data, if that data was intended or had the potential to be shared internally and or combined with data collected on this website. We will also have told you for what purpose we will share and combine your data.

It could also include information from third parties that we work with to provide our products and services, such as payment processors, delivery companies, technical support companies and advertising companies. Whenever we receive information about you from these third parties, we will inform you as to the nature of the information and its intended use.

Why and how your information is used

We take data protection law seriously, so below we have set out exactly how and why we use your information, and what our legal basis is to be able to use your information in each way.

Patient/Customer Accounts

When you register an account on our website as a patient, we will collect and use your personal information for administration and maintenance purposes of your profile/account. This may be necessary in order for us to perform our contract with you or, otherwise, we have a legitimate interest to manage our patients’ accounts to facilitate purchases and communication between us.

You may contact us at any time to close your patient/customer account. It is however important to understand that we may be legally obliged to retain all or some of your personal information for a length of time.

Online Consultations Services including services where a healthcare professional is involved

Prior to purchase of relevant medications on our website we ask and collect information from you in the form of survey/questionnaires. This information is reviewed by one of our doctors or GPhC-registered pharmacy prescribers. If a healthcare professional determines the need for further information from you after reviewing your initial answers, they will ask you to provide this via a secure communication channel.

We endeavour to create an accessible medicines procurement   solution however patient safety always comes first. Healthcare professionals only take information in order to provide a complete and safe healthcare decision. This may involve a more detailed look at your health and well being before supply.

 

 

More info on data related to the supply of services or products

Your personal information is used in the following ways to fulfil the contract between you and ourselves;

• Providing you information about our products and services
• Administer your order, this involves your payment for services or products and arranging of delivery.
• Provide you with information about your purchase and your contract with us
• Assisting of decision making about your purchase, this includes suitability of any medicines for you
• Provide you with alerts/notifications regarding important updates to services relevant to you mainly for the purposes of patient safety
• Identity verification
• Deal with complaints you may have
• Contacting you about any changes that we make to our products or services
• Administer our website, including troubleshooting problems, analysing statistics, conducting research and tests and keeping matters involving cyber/website security

With respect to purchase of test kits from us, we will also use the information you provide to notify you of your result and, if appropriate, suggest a course of treatment or further referral.

Part of our service as a pharmacy involves notifying you when your medicine is due to run out. We will therefore send a courtesy email so that you can reorder your treatment. The timing of this alert is estimate based on the quantity previously ordered by yourself. This is exclusive to treatment or services which are applicable for repeat.

 

Telling you about our other products or services

Your information may be used to identify and tell you about our products or services that we think may be of interest to you. You will have have agreed to this via your selection of marketing preferences, this is asked when you subscribe to our newsletter or when you register an account for example. You may update your preferences at any time by Contacting Us.

We may also use your information to invite you to participate in patient feedback surveys and other market research.You are not obliged to participate. We will respect your right to object to marketing communications Your choice in marketing preference will not have any affect on the quality, choice or price of products or services offered or available to you.

 

Telling you about products or services that are similar to ones that you have already bought

We have a legitimate interest for the reason to contact you for this purpose, but you may object to receiving these messages at any time. Simply follow instructions for cancelling subscription to such communication which can be found in messages from us or contact us.

Making our business better

We strive to to offer the best products, services and an amazing user experience. We may use your information to help us work towards this aim and learn ways that we can improve.

We have a legitimate interest to use your information for the purpose of improving our business, and we will only use your information where it is necessary to meet the following goals:

• Review and improve our existing products and services and develop new ones
• Review and improve the performance of our systems, processes and staff
• Improvement of our website to ensure that content is presented in the most effective, accessible manner for you on the device of your choice
• Measure and understand the effectiveness of advertising we serve to you and others, with the goal of improving how relevant advertising is to you

 

Anonymised data used for research purposes

On occasion we may take from our customer patient database anonymised data sets ( includes only non-personal data). In this case data sets are used for research purposes. It is a legitimate use of such information for this purpose as a healthcare provider.

Contacting you

We love to stay in touch with our customers and patients.We may need to use the information that we have about you in order to respond to your questions or let you know about important changes. We have a legitimate interest to keep in contact with you, as a customer, but this may also be necessary in connection with our contract with you.We will only use your information in this respect where it is necessary so that we can fulfill our obligations under our agreement with you. The following are ways in which we may contact you:

• Interact and respond to any communications you send us, including any social media posts that you tag us in
• Contact you in connection with any orders, including where our clinical team requires further information from you, so that we can notify you of the status of your order, and so that we or our courier partners can update you on delivery estimates.
• Inform you of any important changes to our business or policies

 

We’ll get in touch with you via email, SMS messaging and your patient/account area on our website. In some cases, we may need to call you about your order, but we’ll always notify you of that beforehand.

 

If one of our doctors or pharmacy prescribers needs to contact you regarding your consultation or test result—or needs more information from you—they’ll usually do so through your patient/account area. When you have a new message in your patient/account area, you will be notified by email. However on some occasions, our clinical team may need to contact you by telephone to discuss the finer details with respect to your consultation or test result.

 

If we have made several attempts to reach you by email or telephone and have been unsuccessful, we may contact you by sending a written letter to your home address.

 

 

 

Verifying your identity

We may use your information where it is necessary for us to do so in order to meet our legal obligations, primarily for reasons of ensuring safety. Verification of identity is also used for purposes of detection and prevention of fraud, money-laundering and other crimes.

Protecting you and others from harm

We may use your information where it is necessary in order protect your interests, or the interests of others, in accordance with our legal obligations and the pursuit of legitimate interests. Examples of this include the event of criminality such as identity theft, piracy or fraud.

Change of purpose

We will only use your personal information for the initial purposes for which it was collected, however we may consider that we need to use it for another reason and that reason is compatible with the original purpose. If we need to use your personal information for an unrelated purpose we will notify you prior and explain the legitimate usage of such purpose.

Please note that we may process your personal information without your knowledge or consent, in compliance with the above rules, where this is required or permitted by law.

 

Who do we share your personal information with?

Sharing your information within our company and group

We share the information that you provide to us with our staff so that we can provide our products and services to you. We may also share the information that you provide to us with other companies within our group and the other websites that we and our group companies operate. In particular, the following persons have access to the data that you provide to us:

• Our doctors and Our UK pharmacy prescribers, who are responsible for reviewing your order medically
• Our clinical lead, who oversees/supervises practices
• Our patient services team, which processes your order
• Employees of our parent company and MBT whom manage the NowChemist.com website.

Sharing your information with third parties

We may share your data with selected third parties. For example, we may share your information with:

• MBT

  , our partner organisation, a web development company which maintains the NowChemist.com MBT will only access your data in the event that there is a problem with your order which needs to be resolved.

• Our payment service provider

  , to process payments on our behalf. We will share your full name, address, phone number, email address and details of your order for this purpose. Our payment providerwill collect and process your payment details; we will not store or have access to your full credit or debit card details.

• Third party couriers

  (e.g. primarily Royal Mail ) in order to arrange delivery of your order. We will only share your full name, postal address and phone number or email address.

• Your private or NHS GP or Consultant

  . For patients accessing our private service, we will ask you during consultation if you would like us to inform your GP about the consultation you have taken and the treatment you have ordered or, for patients accessing our referral service, whether you would like to be referred to a specialist consultant for treatment. If you do, we will share with such doctor(s) the type and quantity of treatment you have purchased and/or been prescribed, the date the treatment was prescribed and, where appropriate, details of the consultation. If there is any specific part of your record or consultation you would prefer not to be shared, you can let us know and we will respect this. We strongly recommend that you permit us to inform your GP of the treatment you have received, to maintain continuity of best possible care for yourself. 

• Partner Labs (Subject to change), for processing samples where you order any test kit from us. The data we will share with them includes your name, your date of birth, and your test reference number. Partner labs we use have a responsibility to ensure systems are in place to meet all current EU requirements on encryption, storage and disposal of data.

• Clinical auditors and regulatory bodies. Our pharmacy is registered with the General Pharmaceutical Council. Our doctors are registered with the General Medical Council and our prescribers are registered with the General Pharmaceutical Council. Medicines are regulated by the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency. As such, our practices are routinely inspected by these regulatory bodies on a periodic basis. During an inspection, we may be required to share information about your consultation with an approved auditor from the respective regulatory body.

• Contact management systems, to send emails, instant messages, social media messages and SMS messages.

 

There are certain other exceptional circumstances in which we may disclose your information to third parties. This would be where we believe that the disclosure is:

• Required by the law, or in order to comply with judicial proceedings, court orders or legal or regulatory proceedings.
• Necessary to protect the safety of our employees, our property or the public.
• Necessary for the prevention or detection of crime, including exchanging information with other companies or organisations for the purposes of fraud protection and credit risk reduction.
• Proportionate as part of a merger, business or asset sale, in the event that this happens we will share your information with the prospective seller or buyer involved.

 

How long do we keep your personal information?

We will only store your personal information for as long as we need it for the purposes for which it was collected.

Where we provide you with any service, such as where you register an account as a patient on our website, we will retain any information you provide to us for the minimum term of the time we continue to provide that service to you.

We retain personal data relating to patient health care and prescriptions in accordance with the guidance issued by the Information Governance Alliance. On the expiry of the defined periods, we will review the information that we hold and, unless we have a legitimate reason to keep holding that information (in accordance with our legal obligations and the purposes set out in this policy), it will be securely deleted or discarded.

Generally, personal data may be retained securely with respect to prescriptions issued and dispensed and other care records for a period of 13 years (for adult patients) or 25 years (for any patient who is pregnant).

In all other circumstances (such as where you contact us without making a purchase), we will keep your information for a period of no more than 3 years.

 

How do we protect your personal information?

We will take all steps reasonably necessary to ensure that your data is treated securely and in accordance with this policy.

We try to ensure that all information you provide to us is transferred securely via the website.

Unfortunately, the transmission of information via the internet is never completely secure. We will do our best to protect your personal data, however the security of your data transmitted to our website cannot be guaranteed, any transmission is at your own risk. Once we have received your information, we will use strict procedures and security features to try to prevent unauthorised access to your data.

All information you provide to us is stored on secure servers. Where we have given you (or where you have chosen) a password which enables you to access certain parts of our website, you are responsible for keeping this password confidential. We ask you not to share a password with anyone.

 

Your Rights

Informal – We have a legal obligation to provide you with concise, transparent, intelligible and easily accessible information about your personal information and our use of it. We have prepared this policy to do just that, but please contact us if you have any questions.

Right to access – you have the right to ask if we hold any your personal information, you have the right to a copy of any information held, how it has or is being used, categories of your information, whom it has been shared with and the time frame for which we will hold your information.

Any information requests as such will require identity verification before disclosure. We endeavour to provide a free first copy any subsequent copies of your information will incur an administration fee. Please contact us if you require access to you such information.

You have the right to amendments and corrections of your data, this can be handles from your account section if there is information outside of which is accessible please contact us.

You have the right to be forgotten

There may be times where it is no longer necessary for us to hold personal information about you. This could be if:

• The information is no longer needed for the original purpose that we collected it for
• You withdraw your consent for us to use the information (and we have no other legal reason to keep using it)
• You object to us using your information and we have no overriding reason to keep using it
• We have used your information unlawfully
• We are subject to a legal requirement to delete your information

In these situations you have the right to require us to delete your personal data (although please be aware that we may be required to retain certain information in order to comply with our legal obligations). If you believe one of these situations applies to you, please contact us.

 

You have the right to have your data transferred to you or a third party in a common format

Also known as data portability, you have the right to require us to transfer your personal information, in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format, either to you or to another service provider.

If you would like us to do this, please contact us. There is no charge for you exercising this right.

You have the right to object to direct marketing

You can tell us at any time that you would prefer that we do not use your information for direct marketing purposes. If you would not like to receive any direct marketing from us, please contact us or use the links provided in any of our marketing communications.

You have the right to object to us using your information for our own legitimate interests

Sometimes, we use your personal information to achieve goals that will help us to ultimately help you and other patients. This includes when we tell you about products or services that are similar to ones you have already bought; when we use your information to help us make our business better; and when we contact you to interact, communicate or to let you know about changes we are making.

We aim to always ensure that your rights and information are properly protected. If you believe that the way we are using your data is not justified due to its impact on you or your rights, you have the right to object. Unless we have a compelling reason to continue, we must stop using your personal data for these purposes. If you have any objections to our using your personal data for our legitimate interests, please contact us.

Your right to withdraw your consent

In most cases, we do not require your consent to use your personal information in the ways set out in this policy. However, where we do rely on your consent (such as where you subscribe to our newsletter), your right to withdraw that consent at any time can be exercised by useing the “unsubscribe” links in any of the communications that we send you, or contacting us to withdraw your consent.

Your right to restrict how we use your personal data

You have the right to ask us to stop using your personal data in any way other than simply keeping a copy of it. This right is available where:

• You have informed us that the information we hold about you is inaccurate, and we have not yet been able to verify this
• You have objected to us using your information for our own legitimate interests and we are in the process of considering your objection
• We have used your information in an unlawful way, but you do not want us to delete your data
• We no longer need to use the information, but you need it for a legal claim

If you wish to exercise this right please contact us.

 

You have rights related to automated-decision making and profiling

Any automated decision-making or profiling we undertake is solely for the purpose of tailoring the information which we provide to you. We will not use automated decision-making or profiling to make any decisions which will have a legal effect upon you or otherwise significantly affect you, and you have the right not to be subject to such decisions. If you have any concerns or questions about this right, please contact us.

 

Changes to our Privacy Policy

Any changes we make to our privacy policy in the future will be posted on this page and, where appropriate, notified to you by email. Please check back frequently to see any updates or changes to our privacy policy.

This version was last updated on 26/06/18 and historic versions can be obtained by contacting us.

Complaints

If you wish to make a complaint about our collection or use of your personal data, please contact us in the first instance so that we may seek to resolve your complaint.

You have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the statutory body which oversees data protection law in the UK. Please visit the ICO website if you wish to lodge a complaint with the ICO.

 

Contact Us

If you have any questions about your privacy or our use of your personal data, please contact our Data Protection Officer:

Muhammad Rafiq

 

210 Bury New Road

Whitefield

Manchester

M45 6GG

 

0161 818 4636

[email protected]

If you would like to speak to us, or you have any questions about our website, please get in touch using the details below:

Post:

NowChemist.com, 210 Bury New Road, Whitefield, Manchester, M45 6GG

Email: [email protected]

Tel: 0161 818 4636