What information we collect and how we collect it

You are not required (by law or by any contract with us) to provide personal information to us when you visit our website. We will only require you to provide personal information to us where it is necessary for us to provide you with a service at your request, such as when you contact us, register an account on our website, purchase our products or request nomination.
 

Information you provide to us 

We may collect personal information about you whenever you use our services, such as by doing the following:

• Enquiring about our products or service
• Purchasing products or services
• Supplying us with your products or services
• Using and browsing our website
• Telephoning, texting, writing by post or emailing us.
• Enquiring about, or applying for, job vacancies.

This information may include the following:

• Normal identification information, such as your full name and title, date of birth, age, gender, and marital status
• Contact information, such as your postal address, email address and telephone numbers
• Information about your health, including your current health and wellbeing status, your medical history and records, and details of any medicines or treatment that you are receiving
• Correspondence or information provided by you in your patient area (such as prescriber chat messages, pharmacy chat messages or messages you send to our customer care team)
• Information about your purchase (including your purchase history with us)
• Payment information (this is securely collected and processed by our payment service provider)
• Additional information relevant to your use of our website and services, such as your marketing preferences, survey responses and feedback

We understand that any information concerning your health is particularly sensitive (known as “special categories” of personal data). We take extra precautions to ensure that any special category data is kept secure and confidential and we will only retain this data for as long as necessary for the purposes for which we collect it.
 

Information we collect about you on our website 

We collect information using cookies and other similar technologies to help distinguish you from other users of our website. These can streamline your online experience by saving you from re-inputting some information and allow us to make improvements to our website and analyse user statistics.

When you visit our website we may collect the following information:

• Which pages you view and which links you follow
• Your IP address and general location
• Details of the hardware and software that you are using to access the website
• Any passwords that you use on our website
• A device identifier (cookie or IP address) for fraud prevention
• Details of your visits to our website and the resources that you access, including, but not limited to, traffic data, location data, web logs and other communication data

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.

Cookies

1. A cookie is a small text file that is sent by a website server to your browser and stored on your computer. Cookies allow website operators to accumulate useful information, such as whether the computer (or its user) has visited the site before. Cookies are needed for a number of functions which make websites work, or work more efficiently, and they can provide information to website owners about how you use their website. Cookies can also be used to show you adverts that are relevant to you, based on your browsing habits, to personalise your user experience.
2. We use cookies to monitor how people use our website, including estimating audience size and patterns of use, to help us provide you with a better service. Cookies also make it easier for you to use the website on future visits, and allow us to personalise the content of the website to you by recording information about your preferences.
3. We use both persistent cookies (which expire on a specified date) and session cookies (which expire when you close your browser).
4. The cookies used on this site have been categorised based on definitions given in the ICC UK Cookie Guide. We use the following cookies:
   • Strictly necessary cookies. These are cookies that are required for the operation of our website. Without these cookies services you have asked for cannot be provided.
   • Functionality cookies. These are used to recognise you when you return to our website. This enables us to personalise our content for you, greet you by name and remember your preferences (for example, your choice of language or region – or your cookies and marketing preferences).
   • Analytical/performance cookies. These allow us to recognise and count our website’s visitors and to see how visitors move around our website when they are using it. This helps us to improve the way our website works, for example, by ensuring that users are finding what they are looking for easily. Some of our performance cookies may be managed by third parties.
   • Targeting or advertising cookies. These cookies are used to help us show you adverts that are more relevant to you and your interests. We also use these to cap the number of times you see an 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. These cookies will typically be linked to site functionality managed by the other organisation.

Please note that third parties (including, for example providers of external services like web traffic analysis, or advertising services and vendors) may also use cookies, over which we have no control. These cookies are likely to be analytical/performance cookies or targeting cookies.

Please bear in mind that if you don’t allow us to use certain cookies it may prevent you from accessing parts of our website or result in a loss of functionality which degrades your experience of the website.

Information we collect about you from other sources 

We may collect information about you from other sources. This may include the following:

• Publicly available information, from sources such as the Electoral Roll or Companies House
• Information you have shared publicly, including on social media (particularly in respect of 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, such as fulfilling your or a relative’s NHS prescriptions, or comply with our legal obligations)

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

How and why we use your personal information

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

1. Patient/customer accounts
   • When you register an account on our website as a patient, we will collect and use your personal information in order to maintain and administer your patient 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 account. However, please bear in mind that we may be required to retain your personal information in order to comply with our legal obligations.
2. Supplying products and/or services
   • It is necessary for us to use personal information about you to enter into and perform the contracts that we make with you, such as when you purchase medicines or other products on our website. Using your information in this context is necessary so that we can:
     • Provide you with information about our products and services
     • Administer your order, including take payments and arranging delivery
     • Provide you with information about your purchase and your contract with us
     • Make decisions about your purchase, including about the suitability of any medicines
     • Provide you with alerts regarding repeat prescription orders
     • Verify your identity
     • Deal with any complaints you may have
     • Contact 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 the website secure
3. Improving our service
   • We always want to offer the best products, services and user experience that we can. Sometimes this means we may use your information to find ways that we can improve what we do, or how we do it.
   • We have a legitimate interest to use your information to improve our business, and we will only use your information where it is necessary so that we can:
     • Review and improve our existing products and services and develop new ones
     • Review and improve the performance of our systems, processes and staff (including training)
     • Improve our website to ensure that content is presented in the most effective manner for you and for your computer
     • Measure and understand the effectiveness of advertising we serve to you and others, and to deliver relevant advertising to you.
4. Analysis and research
   • We may use anonymised data related to your order or use of our site for research or public-facing purposes, for example in: statistical analyses of users accessing our service for a specific purpose.
5. Contacting you
   • Sometimes 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:
     • 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 provide delivery updates
     • Let you know about any important changes to our business or policies
     • We will primarily contact you via email, SMS messaging and your patient area on our website to update you on your order. In certain cases, where our customer service team needs to contact you regarding your order, we may contact you by telephone
     • 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
6. Identifying you
   • We may use your information where it is necessary for us to do so in order to meet our legal obligations and to detect and prevent fraud, money-laundering and other crimes.
7. Protection
   • We may use your information where it is necessary to protect your interests, or the interests of others, in accordance with our legal obligations and the pursuit of legitimate interests. This may include in the event of criminality such as identity theft, piracy or fraud.
8. Change of purpose
   • We will only use your personal information for the purposes for which we collected it, unless we reasonably 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 and we will explain the legal basis which allows us to do so.

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.

Sharing your information

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 operate. In particular, the following persons have access to the data that you provide to us:

• Pharmacy team - who process your prescriptions and orders
• Pharmacists - who clinically check your prescriptions and orders and provide services
• Delivery couriers - who deliver your orders and prescriptions

Employees of our parent company, Stag Chemist Birmingham Limited, which manages the Stag Direct branch and website may handle some of our operations

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

1. 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 provider will collect and process your payment details; we will not store or have access to your full credit or debit card details.
2. A credit reference agency, for carrying out identity checks. All orders made through our site are subject to identity checks, in order to prevent online fraud. Your full name, date of birth and home address will be shared for this purpose.
3. Third party couriers in order to arrange delivery or your order. We will only share your full name, postal address and phone number or email address.
4. Your private or NHS GP or prescriber. As part of some services, we may need to share the service provision information including your details, any medicine recommended or provided (including name, strength and duration of treatment) and service outcome with your other healthcare providers such as your GP. We strongly recommend that you permit us to inform your GP of the treatment you have received, so that they can continue to provide you with the best possible care.
5. Clinical auditors and regulatory bodies. Our pharmacy is 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.
6. Contact management systems, to send emails, instant messages, social media messages and SMS messages.
7. 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.

Keeping your 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 at least for as long as 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 NHS (see link for our recommended retention periods and guidelines). On the expiry of these 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.

Generally, we may retain personal data relating 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).

Protection

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 (always check for the padlock symbol in your browser, and “https” in the URL, to ensure that your connection is secure).

Unfortunately, the transmission of information via the internet is not completely secure. Although we will do our best to protect your personal data, we cannot guarantee the security of your data transmitted to our website; 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.

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.

Any data you send to us using the NHS app goes through encryption in transit, to protect your privacy.

Rights

If you require any further information about your rights as explained below, or if you would like to exercise any of your rights, please contact us.

1. Right to be informed
   • 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.
2. Right to access
   • You have the right to ask us to confirm whether or not we hold any of your personal information. If we do, you have the right to have a copy of your information and to be informed of the following:
     • Why we have been using your information.
     • What categories of information we were using.
     • Who we have shared the information with.
     • How long we envisage holding your information.
   • In order to maintain the security of your information, we will have to verify your identity before we provide you with a copy of the information we hold. The first copy of your information that you request from us will be provided free of charge, if you require further copies we may charge an administrative fee to cover our costs. Please contact us to request access to your data.
3. Right to correct any inaccurate or incomplete personal information
   • If you believe that any of the information we hold about you is inaccurate, incomplete, or out of date, you have the right to require us to rectify that information. Alternatively, please contact us so that we can correct our records.
4. 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.
5. Right to transer data
   • 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 is. There is no charge for you exercising this right.
6. 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.
7. Right to restrict
   • 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
   • For example, you may wish for us to retain your contact details on our “do not contact” list to ensure that we do not send marketing emails to you in the future. If you wish to exercise this right please contact us.
8. 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 uploaded to 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 14/10/2024.

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:

• Abid Hussain - 10A Haden Street, Birmingham, B12 9BH.

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