Purpose

The purpose of this policy is to inform users of this website about the specific privacy guidelines that have been adopted, as well as terms and conditions governing the use of the GP CLINICAL FORUM.

To whom the policy applies

The policy applies to all users of the GP CLINICAL FORUM.

Use of the GP Clinical Forum

The GP CLINICAL FORUM is for use of lawful purposes, and should not be used for any unlawful purpose, including unlawful or unauthorised use of technology or application to search, collect or download information on the GP CLINICAL FORUM and unlawful downloading of information for purposes of committing criminal activities, transmitting of unauthorised information, and unauthorised access to restricted pages.

Should any user be found to be using the GP CLINICAL FORUM for unlawful purposes or using unlawful or unauthorised technology, the GP Clinical Forum reserves the right to institute criminal proceedings against such user, the right to claim for damages from such user, and cannot be held liable for any loss, damage or liability that resulted from such unlawful activity. The website and its contents may not be reproduced, duplicated, copied or used for any commercial purpose without the prior written consent of the GP Clinical Forum.


Service Provider Links

The GP CLINICAL FORUM includes links to third party service providers. The location of links on this website is by no means an endorsement or approval of their sites privacy policy. It would be in your best interest to review their policy before providing any personal information. Any personal information that you provide through a third party website/s will occur on that website and not on the GP CLINICAL FORUM.


Information collected

We collect information to maintain all records regarding practitioners’ continuing professional development (CPD) and to provide better services to all users. Information is collected through information users give us, information we get from the use of our services, information from third party partners and information from service providers.

Information you give us

Personal and account information

For the GP Clinical Forum to work efficiently we need to collect personal information about public sector health employees and to store relevant information in the system. The personal information that we require includes your name and surname, identity number, PERSAL number, date of birth, email address, telephone number, employer, qualifications, current position held.

Email policy

You will have provided your email address at the time of registration or we will have access to it as part of your personal information. Your email address is kept confidential except as provided in this policy. We do not sell, rent or use your email address to advertise third-party products or services to you, other than those associated with this GP CLINICAL FORUM.

We use your email address to let you know about things that are associated with the GP CLINICAL FORUM, CPD opportunities, or with GP Clinical Forum, such as telling you important information about your account, letting you know if something is changing on the GP CLINICAL FORUM or with any of the policies. Please note that if you email us we might keep your message, email address, and any other information you provide us, so that we can process and respond to your request.

You can choose to limit some of these kind of notifications. Others, such as those containing critical information that all users need to know to participate successfully in the GP CLINICAL FORUM, you may not be able to opt out of. You can manage what kinds of notifications you receive and how often you receive them by going to your settings when logged in to the GP CLINICAL FORUM.

We will never ask for your password by email (but may send you a temporary password via email if you have requested a password reset or forgot your password). If you ever receive an email requesting your password, please let us know by using the contact us form on the GP CLINICAL FORUM, so we can investigate the source of the email.

Direct communications between users, to the extent such communications are non-public and stored in or in transit through GP CLINICAL FORUM systems, are kept confidential by us, except as provided in this Policy.

How to manage your information

As you are registered as a user on the GP CLINICAL FORUM, you have access to your personal information. If that information is wrong, we give you ways to update it quickly or to delete it, unless we have to keep the information for business or legal purposes. When updating your personal information, we will ask you to verify your identity before we can act on your request.

We aim to maintain our services in a manner that protects information from accidental or malicious destruction. Because of this, after you delete information from our services, we may not immediately delete residual copies from our active servers and may not remove information from our backup systems.

Surveys and feedback

Online surveys and feedback may also be undertaken by GP Clinical Forum through the website. While the GP Clinical Forum would appreciate your feedback, the undertaking of surveys by the user is totally voluntary. Reports from surveys may be made available, including with third party partners and service providers, however this in no way will compromise your privacy.

Information we get from our services

Cookies and other similar technologies

The GP CLINICAL FORUM may deploy cookies or similar technologies, which collects data from your browser, to record information for improving our services, as well as information about your preferences. The deployment of cookies will not cause damage to your device or files. Should you refuse the use of cookies, you may set your browser to refuse cookies, but if you do, some parts of our website or services may not work properly.

Other non-personal information

We collect information about the services that you use and how you use them.

We collect information about your device, such as your hardware model, operating system version, unique device identifiers and mobile network information including the phone number.

We collect and store information locally on your device using mechanisms such as browser web storage and application data caches.

The GP CLINICAL FORUM website may automatically gather and store information about your visit to the website, including but not limited to, date and time of access to site; pages or documents accessed; and IP address. The information is anonymised and is used for statistical purposes such as traffic trends and usage patterns, and not intended to contact you or be made available, unless legally obliged to do so.

Information from 3rd party and service providers

Some information we receive about you will be from 3rd Party Partners as well as from Service Providers, so that we can keep your profile up to date. This information will be treated in the same way as the personal information that we collect from you.

How we use information we collect

We use the information we collect to provide, maintain, protect and improve our service to you. We only collect, track and analyse Site Information in an aggregate manner that does not personally identify you. This aggregate data may be used to assist us in operating the GP CLINICAL FORUM and the Services and provided to other third parties to enable them to better understand the operation of the services and improve their course offerings, but such information will be in aggregate form only and it will not contain personally identifiable data.

Information we share

Marketing and communication

The GP Clinical Forum may use your personal information to send you marketing and promotional material through SMS or Email. These may be in the form of satisfaction surveys/feedback or brochures of programmes and services, and are intended to keep you abreast of opportunities as well as receiving your comments to improve our services. You may opt out of these services by updating your preferences in your profile.

Legal reasons

We may access, preserve, or disclose your personal information if we reasonably believe it necessary to satisfy a valid and legally enforceable warrant, subpoena, court order, law or regulation, or other judicial or administrative order. However, if we believe that a particular request for disclosure of a user's information is legally invalid or an abuse of the legal system and the affected user does not intend to oppose the disclosure themselves, we will try our best to fight it. We are committed to notifying you via email at least ten (10) calendar days, when possible, before we disclose your personal information in response to a legal demand. However, we may only provide notice if we are not legally restrained from contacting you, there is no credible threat to life or limb that is created or increased by disclosing the request, and you have provided us with an email address.

Nothing in this Privacy Policy is intended to limit any legal objections or defences you may have to a third party's request (whether it be civil, criminal, or governmental) to disclose your information. We recommend seeking the advice of legal counsel immediately if such a request is made involving you.


Information you share

Any information that you disclose in this social space, may be shared and therefore you should exercise discretion on the nature of discussions as well as disclosure of personal information. These discussions may also be logged.


Security and protection

The GP Clinical Forum has put in place reasonable security measures to protect against the public access, loss, misuse and alteration of personal information stored on the website servers and databases. The security measures include user name and password access, and logging of access to databases. You are urged to assist in upholding security measures, by protecting the confidentiality of access to the GP CLINICAL FORUM.