Privacy policy
This notice explains how your personal information is used when you contact Tim Dunton through onlinehypnotherapy.uk, book a free consultation or have online hypnotherapy sessions. It is written to meet the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018. If anything is unclear, please call Tim on 07923 495558.
Who is responsible for your information
The data controller is Tim Dunton, a sole trader trading as Online Hypnotherapy. Tim runs the practice himself and is the person responsible for data protection.
- Telephone: 07923 495558
- Contact form: book a consultation (it goes straight to Tim)
What information is collected
When you get in touch or book a consultation
- Your name, phone number and email address
- The time zone and times that suit you
- Anything you choose to tell Tim about why you are getting in touch, which may include information about your health
If you become a client
- Contact details, including a backup phone number for use if a video call drops, and where needed your address and date of birth
- Appointment, booking and payment records
- Notes made during your consultation and sessions, which may include information about your physical and mental health, medication, GP details and personal circumstances
- Messages you send between sessions
Information about your health is special category data under UK GDPR. It is given extra protection and only collected where it is needed to provide your sessions safely and properly.
During video sessions
Sessions take place over Microsoft Teams or Zoom, whichever you choose. Sessions are not recorded unless you and Tim both agree beforehand, and Tim does not keep copies of video or audio. The platform you use will process technical information needed to run the call, such as your name as displayed, IP address, device information and call logs. Anything typed in the meeting chat may be kept by the platform, so please tell Tim confidential details in conversation rather than in the chat.
If you and Tim do agree to record something, for example part of a session for you to listen to between sessions, Tim will explain how it will be stored, sent to you and deleted before recording begins.
When you visit this website
This website does not use cookies, analytics or tracking tools. The server that hosts it may briefly record technical information such as your IP address and browser type in security logs. This is used only to keep the site running safely.
Why your information is used, and the legal basis
| Purpose | Legal basis |
|---|---|
| Replying to your enquiry and arranging a free consultation | Taking steps at your request before entering into an agreement, and legitimate interests in responding to enquiries |
| Providing your online sessions, sending session links, keeping appointment records and taking payment | Performance of our agreement with you |
| Keeping session notes, including health information | Your explicit consent (see below) |
| Contacting you by phone if a video call drops | Performance of our agreement with you |
| Keeping financial records for tax purposes | Legal obligation |
| Dealing with complaints, insurance or legal claims | Legitimate interests, and where health data is involved, establishing or defending legal claims |
Health information
UK GDPR needs an additional condition before health information can be used. Tim asks for your explicit consent to record health information as part of your consultation (UK GDPR Article 9(2)(a)). Where it applies, Tim may also rely on the condition for the provision of health or social care by someone working under a duty of confidentiality (Article 9(2)(h)).
You can withdraw consent at any time. Tim will then stop adding to your notes, but may need to keep existing records for the period below, and it may not be possible to continue sessions safely without them.
Confidentiality
What you discuss in sessions is confidential, and Tim takes part in every session from a private room using headphones. Your information is never sold or used for marketing by others. It would only be shared without your agreement in rare circumstances: where there is a serious risk of harm to you or someone else, where a child or vulnerable adult may be at risk, or where the law requires it. Wherever possible, Tim would talk to you first.
Service providers (processors)
Tim uses a small number of trusted providers to run an online practice. They act on his instructions and must keep your information secure:
- Video sessions: Microsoft (Microsoft Teams) or Zoom Video Communications (Zoom), depending on which you choose
- Contact form: Resend (passes your message to Tim's email)
- Email: Microsoft Outlook
- Card payments: a secure card payment provider
- Website hosting: Vercel
Some of these providers, including Microsoft and Zoom, may process information outside the UK, for example in the United States. Where they do, Tim will rely on appropriate safeguards such as UK adequacy regulations (including the UK–US data bridge) or approved contract terms.
Clients outside the UK
If you have sessions from another country, your information is still held and handled by Tim in the UK under UK data protection law, as described in this notice.
How long information is kept
- Enquiries that do not lead to sessions: 12 months
- Client notes and session records: 7 years after your last session
- Financial records: 6 years, as required by HMRC
After that, records are securely deleted or destroyed.
How your information is protected
Electronic records are kept on password-protected, encrypted devices and accounts, and any paper notes are locked away. Only Tim has access to your session notes. Each video session uses its own private link with a lobby, so only you can join.
Your rights
Under UK data protection law you have the right to:
- Ask for a copy of the information held about you
- Ask for inaccurate information to be corrected
- Ask for your information to be deleted, where there is no good reason to keep it
- Ask for its use to be restricted, or object to its use
- Ask for information you provided to be transferred to you or someone else in a usable format
- Withdraw your consent at any time, where consent is the basis for using it
To use any of these rights, contact Tim using the details above. There is normally no charge, and you will receive a reply within one month.
Complaints
If you are unhappy with how your information has been handled, please tell Tim first so he can try to put it right. You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), the UK's data protection regulator: ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint or 0303 123 1113.
Cookies
This website sets no cookies and uses no analytics, advertising or tracking tools, so there is no cookie banner. If this changes, this notice will be updated and your consent will be asked for before any non-essential cookies are used.
Changes to this notice
This notice may be updated from time to time. The date it was last reviewed is shown on this page. See also the terms.