Pin Oak Life Privacy Policy  

Introduction

This Privacy Policy outlines Pin Oak Life's (" we ", " our " or " the Company ") practices with respect to information collected from users who access our website at https://www.pinoaklife.com/ (" Site "), or otherwise share personal information with us (collectively: " Users "). We do this in a manner that is compliant, ethical, adheres to industry best practice and applicable protection of personal information legislation as enacted from time to time.

Definitions

“The Practice” refers to the medical practice of Sr. Helen S. Cyster ; Practice number: 0695882; “You” and “your” refers to you the patient and any of your dependents which may include your spouse, partner, children and other dependents as the case may be. “Your personal information” refers to personal and special personal information about you and your dependents (as relevant). It includes information about race, gender, sex, pregnancy, marital status, national, ethnic or social origin, colour, sexual orientation, age, physical or mental health, well-being, disability, religion, conscience, belief, culture, language and birth of the individual amongst other things. Thus, your personal information comprises information you may have given to us yourself or we may have collected from other sources (e.g. pathology laboratory). Process(ing) (of) information means the lawful and reasonable automated or manual activity of collecting, recording, organising, storing, updating, distributing and removing or deleting personal information to ensure that such processing is adequate, relevant and not excessive given the purpose for which it is processed. Competent person means anyone who is legally competent to consent to any action or decision being taken for any matter concerning a patient or dependent - for example a parent, legal guardian or a legal representative appointed by a court to manage the finances, property, or estate of another person unable to do so because of mental or physical incapacity.

Grounds for data collection 

The Protection of Personal Information Act (POPI Act or POPIA) is South Africa’s equivalent of the European Union General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) that came into effect on 1 July 2020, introducing significant changes to data protection laws in South Africa. Pin Oak Life is committed to complying with the POPI and GDPR requirements and international best practice; within our Privacy Policy we state how our users information is collected and what our users information is used for.

Processing of your personal information (meaning, any information which may potentially allow your identification with reasonable means; hereinafter " Personal Information ") is necessary for the performance of our contractual obligations towards you and providing you with our services, to protect our legitimate interests and for compliance with legal and financial regulatory obligations to which we are subject.

When you use the Site, you consent to the collection, storage, use, disclosure and other uses of your Personal Information as described in this Privacy Policy.

We encourage our Users to carefully read the Privacy Policy and use it to make informed decisions. 

What information we collect?

We collect two types of data and information from Users. 

The first type of information is un-identified and non-identifiable information pertaining to a User(s), which may be made available or gathered via your use of the Site (“ Non-personal Information ”). We are not aware of the identity of a User from which the Non-personal Information was collected. Non-personal Information which is being collected may include your aggregated usage information and technical information transmitted by your device, including certain software and hardware information (e.g. the type of browser and operating system your device uses, language preference, access time, etc.) in order to enhance the functionality of our Site. We may also collect information on your activity on the Site (e.g. pages viewed, online browsing, clicks, actions, etc.).

The second type of information Personal Information which is individually identifiable information, namely information that identifies an individual or may with reasonable effort identify an individual. Such information includes:
  • Device Information: We collect Personal Information from your device. Such information includes geolocation data, IP address, unique identifiers (e.g. MAC address and UUID) and other information which relates to your activity through the Site.
  • Contact information: When you send through an enquiry on our Site you will be asked to provide us certain details such as: full name; e-mail or physical address, and other information.
  • Medical insurance information and other personal information
We do not rent, sell, or share Users’ information with third parties except as described in this Privacy Policy.

We may use the information for the following:
 • Communicating with you – sending you notices regarding our services, providing you with technical information and responding to any customer service      issue you  may have;
• To communicate with you and to keep you informed of our latest updates and services;
• To serve you advertisements when you use our Site (see more under "Advertisements"); 
• To market our websites and products (see more under "Marketing"); 
• Conducting statistical and analytical purposes, intended to improve the Site.

 In addition to the different uses listed above, we may transfer or disclose Personal Information to our subsidiaries, affiliated companies and subcontractors.

In addition to the purposes listed in this Privacy Policy, we may share Personal Information with our trusted third party providers, who may be located in different jurisdictions across the world, for any of the following purposes: 
• Hosting and operating our Site;
• Providing you with our services, including providing a personalized display of our Site;
• Storing and processing such information on our behalf; 
• Serving you with advertisements and assist us in evaluating the success of our advertising campaigns and help us retarget any of our users;
• Providing you with marketing offers and promotional materials related to our Site and services; 
• Performing research, technical diagnostics or analytics;

 We may also disclose information if we have good faith to believe that disclosure of such information is helpful or reasonably necessary to: (i) comply with any applicable law, regulation, legal process or governmental request; (ii) enforce our policies (including our Agreement), including investigations of potential violations thereof; (iii) investigate, detect, prevent, or take action regarding illegal activities or other wrongdoing, suspected fraud or security issues; (iv) to establish or exercise our rights to defend against legal claims; (v) prevent harm to the rights, property or safety of us, our users, yourself or any third party; or (vi) for the purpose of collaborating with law enforcement agencies and/or in case we find it necessary in order to enforce intellectual property or other legal rights.


The Promotion of Access to Information Act (PAIA)

The PAIA was passed to give effect to the constitutional right, held by everyone in South Africa, of access to information which is held by the State or by another person and which is required for the exercise or protection of any right. Where a request is made in terms of PAIA, the body to which the request is made, is obliged to give access to the requested information, except where the Act expressly provides that the information may or must not be released. It is important to note that PAIA recognises certain limitations to the right of access to information, including, but not exclusively, limitations aimed at the reasonable protection of privacy, commercial confidentiality, and effective, efficient and good governance, and in a manner which balances that right with any other rights, including such rights contained in the Bill of Rights in the Constitution. The Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA) was enacted in November 2013, to promote the protection of personal information processed by public and private bodies. POPIA amended certain provisions of PAIA, balancing the need for access to information against the need to ensure the protection of personal information. We will take all reasonable steps to confirm your identity before providing details of your personal information in respect of a formal request for such information. We are entitled to charge a fee for this service and will let you know what it is at the time of your request.

How do we receive information about you?

We receive your Personal Information from various sources:
  • When you voluntarily provide us your personal details in order to register on our Site;
  • When you use or access our Site in connection with your use of our services;
  • From third party providers, services and public registers (for example, traffic analytics vendors).

User Rights

You may request to: 
  1. Receive confirmation as to whether or not personal information concerning you is being processed, and access your stored personal information, together with supplementary information. 
  2. Receive a copy of personal information you directly volunteer to us in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format. 
  3. Request rectification of your personal information that is in our control.
  4. Request erasure of your personal information. 
  5. Object to the processing of personal information by us. 
  6. Request to restrict processing of your personal information by us.
  7. Lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority.

However, please note that these rights are not absolute, and may be subject to our own legitimate interests and regulatory requirements. 

If you wish to exercise any of the aforementioned rights, or receive more information, please contact our Data Protection Officer (“DPO”) using the details provided below: helen@pinoaklife.com.



Your consent and acceptance 

You understand and accept that the Practice may process your personal information. We will do so in a manner that complies with the law. We will process your information for the following purposes: 
• for the provision of health care services to you and your dependents; 
• for the administration of you and your dependents’ interactions with the Practice including but not limited to scheduling appointments, referrals to hospital and /or other healthcare professionals, procuring tests and diagnostic procedures, prescribing and dispensing medication, and the processing/payment of accounts, debt collection, etc; 
• for claim submissions to your medical scheme (where applicable); 
• for the provision of relevant information to a contracted third party who requires this information in order to provide a healthcare service to you or your      dependents; 
• to share your personal information with external health administrators, managed care providers and other healthcare practitioners for them to assess or evaluate certain clinical information, in the event that you are subject to such a clinical assessment: 
• to communicate or report to any state regulatory or any other governance body on any matter relating to your personal information that we are by law obliged to communicate and report on. 

Examples of when and how we will get and share your personal information include: 
• Getting your personal information from other relevant sources, including other medical practitioners, contracted service providers. 
• Transferring your personal information outside the borders of the Republic of South Africa where appropriate, for example to administer international emergency treatment. 
• If a third party asks the Practice for any of your personal information, we will share it with them only if: 
o you have already given your consent for the disclosure of this information to that third party; or 
o we have a legal or contractual duty to give the information to that third party. 
• The Practice will provide your personal information to any entity with whom you or your dependent/s already have a relationship; or where you or your dependent/s have applied for a product, service or benefit from such an entity. This information will be provided for the administration of you or your dependent/s products or benefits with such entities.

Your rights over your information 

You have the right to ask us to update, correct or delete your personal information, unless the law requires us to keep it. Where we cannot delete your personal information, we will take all practical steps to de-personalise it. Where this Practice is required by law to collect and keep personal information, we shall do so. At a minimum, this includes the following legislation:
• Medical Schemes Act, 1998 
• The Consumer Protection Act, 2008 
• The Protection of Personal Information Act, 2013 
• Electronic Communications and Transactions Act, 2002 
• Promotion of Access to Information Act, 2002

Your right to complain If you believe that this Practice has used your personal information contrary to this Privacy Statement, you have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Regulator, under POPIA, but we encourage you to first contact the Practice to resolve the complaint. If, thereafter, you feel that we have not resolved your complaint adequately, kindly contact The Information Regulator at: |JD House | 27 Stiemens Street | Braamfontein | Johannesburg | 2001 or |PO Box 31533 |Braamfontein| Johannesburg | 2017.

Retention

We will retain your personal information for as long as necessary to provide our services, and as necessary to comply with our legal obligations, resolve disputes, and enforce our policies. Retention periods will be determined taking into account the type of information that is collected and the purpose for which it is collected, bearing in mind the requirements applicable to the situation and the need to destroy outdated, unused information at the earliest reasonable time. Under applicable regulations, we will keep records containing client personal data, account opening documents, communications and anything else as required by applicable laws and regulations. 

We may rectify, replenish or remove incomplete or inaccurate information, at any time and at our own discretion.

Cookies

We and our trusted partners use cookies and other technologies in our related services, including when you visit our Site or access our services. 

A "cookie" is a small piece of information that a website assign to your device while you are viewing a website. Cookies are very helpful and can be used for various different purposes. These purposes include allowing you to navigate between pages efficiently, enable automatic activation of certain features, remembering your preferences and making the interaction between you and our Services quicker and easier. Cookies are also used to help ensure that the advertisements you see are relevant to you and your interests and to compile statistical data on your use of our Services. 

The Site uses the following types of cookies:

a. 'session cookies' which are stored only temporarily during a browsing session in order to allow normal use of the system and are deleted from your device when the browser is closed; 

b. 'persistent cookies ' which are read only by the Site, saved on your computer for a fixed period and are not deleted when the browser is closed. Such cookies are used where we need to know who you are for repeat visits, for example to allow us to store your preferences for the next sign-in; 

c. 'third party cookies' which are set by other online services who run content on the page you are viewing, for example by third party analytics companies who monitor and analyze our web access.

Cookies do not contain any information that personally identifies you, but Personal Information that we store about you may be linked, by us, to the information stored in and obtained from cookies. You may remove the cookies by following the instructions of your device preferences; however, if you choose to disable cookies, some features of our Site may not operate properly and your online experience may be limited.

We also use a tool called “Google Analytics” to collect information about your use of the Site. Google Analytics collects information such as how often users access the Site, what pages they visit when they do so, etc. We use the information we get from Google Analytics only to improve our Site and services. Google Analytics collects the IP address assigned to you on the date you visit sites, rather than your name or other identifying information. We do not combine the information collected through the use of Google Analytics with personally identifiable information. Google’s ability to use and share information collected by Google Analytics about your visits to this Site is restricted by the Google Analytics Terms of Use and the Google Privacy Policy.

Third party collection of information

Our policy only addresses the use and disclosure of information we collect from you. To the extent you disclose your information to other parties or sites throughout the internet, different rules may apply to their use or disclosure of the information you disclose to them. Accordingly, we encourage you to read the terms and conditions and privacy policy of each third party that you choose to disclose information to. 

This Privacy Policy does not apply to the practices of companies that we do not own or control, or to individuals whom we do not employ or manage, including any of the third parties which we may disclose information as set forth in this Privacy Policy. 

How do we safeguard your information?

We take great care in implementing and maintaining the security of the Site and your information. We employ industry standard procedures and policies to ensure the safety of the information we collect and retain, and prevent unauthorised use of any such information, and we require any third party to comply with similar security requirements, in accordance with this Privacy Policy . Although we take reasonable steps to safeguard information, we cannot be responsible for the acts of those who gain unauthorized access or abuse our Site, and we make no warranty, express, implied or otherwise, that we will prevent such access.


How the practice will process and disclose your personal information and communicate with you:

The Practice will keep your personal information confidential. When you engage with the practice, you entrust it with personal information about yourself and, where applicable, your dependents. We are committed to protecting your right to privacy. We have a duty to take all reasonably practicable steps to ensure your personal information is complete, accurate, not misleading and updated on a regular basis. To enable this, we will always endeavour to obtain personal information from you directly. Where we are unable to do so, we will make use of verifiable independent third-party data sources. You have the right to object to the processing of your personal information and have a choice whether or not to accept these terms and conditions. However, it is important to note that we require your acceptance to service you and your dependents’ medical treatment and care.

By submitting your dependents’ relevant personal information, you hereby confirm that you are duly authorised to share such information with us. We will furthermore process their information for the purposes and in the manner set out in this Privacy Statement. If you are giving consent for a person under 18 (a minor), you confirm that you are a competent person and that you have authority to give their consent on their behalf. If you share your personal information with any third parties, we will not be responsible for how they use this information nor be responsible for any loss suffered by you or your dependents (where applicable).

Transfer of data outside the SA 

Please note that some data recipients may be located outside the SA. Section 72 of PoPIA permits the transferring of personal information outside of South Africa subject to the following conditions:
• the third party who is the recipient of the information is subject to a law, binding corporate rules or binding agreement which provide an adequate level of protection (as described in PoPIA)
• the data subject consents to the transfer;
• the transfer is necessary for the performance of a contract between the data subject and the responsible party, or for the implementation of pre-contractual measures taken in response to the data subject’s request; 
• the transfer is necessary for the conclusion or performance of a contract concluded in the interest of the data subject between the responsible party and a third party; or 
• the transfer is for the benefit of the data subject, as further stipulated in PoPIA.

Advertisements

We may use a third-party advertising technology to serve advertisements when you access the Site. This technology uses your information with regards to your use of the Services to serve advertisements to you (e.g., by placing third-party cookies on your web browser). 

You may opt-out of many third-party ad networks, including those operated by members of the Network Advertising Initiative ("NAI") and the Digital Advertising Alliance ("DAA"). For more information about this practice by NAI and DAA members, and your choices regarding having this information used by these companies, including how to opt-out of third-party ad networks operated by NAI and DAA members, please visit their respective websites: http://optout.networkadvertising.org/#!/ and http://optout.aboutads.info/#!/ .

Marketing

We may use your Personal Information, such as your name, email address, telephone number, etc. ourselves or by using our third party subcontractors for the purpose of providing you with promotional materials, concerning our services, which we believe may interest you.  

Out of respect to your right to privacy we provide you within such marketing materials with means to decline receiving further marketing offers from us. If you unsubscribe we will remove your email address or telephone number from our marketing distribution lists. 

Please note that even if you have unsubscribed from receiving marketing emails from us, we may send you other types of important e-mail communications without offering you the opportunity to opt out of receiving them. These may include customer service announcements or administrative notices.

Corporate transaction

We may share information in the event of a corporate transaction (e.g. sale of a substantial part of our business, merger, consolidation or asset sale). In the event of the above, the transferee or acquiring company will assume the rights and obligations as described in this Privacy Policy.

Minors

We understand the importance of protecting children’s privacy, especially in an online environment. The Site is not designed for or directed at children. Under no circumstances shall we allow use of our services by minors without prior consent or authorization by a parent or legal guardian. We do not knowingly collect Personal Information from minors. If a parent or guardian becomes aware that his or her child has provided us with Personal Information without their consent, he or she should contact us at helen@pinoaklife.com

Updates or amendments to this Privacy Policy

We reserve the right to periodically amend or revise the Privacy Policy; material changes will be effective immediately upon the display of the revised Privacy policy. The last revision will be reflected in the "Last modified" section. Your continued use of the Platform, following the notification of such amendments on our website, constitutes your acknowledgment and consent of such amendments to the Privacy Policy and your agreement to be bound by the terms of such amendments.

How to contact us

If you have any general questions about the Site or the information we collect about you and how we use it, you can contact us at helen@pinoaklife.com .
Please complete the details of the company:

Pin Oak Life
Helen S. Cyster
082 926 8150
Last Modified 27 April 2024
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