Privacy Policy

The Sound Doctor Ltd is committed to protecting your privacy. Our aim is to give you a safe and helpful online resource. To ensure that we provide the best service to all customers and patients it is necessary for us to collect some information about how our website is used.

In order to improve the website and help benefit as many people as possible, our aim is to gather a small amount of information about how people are using the website and their experience of using it. This will be anonymous. The information we collect may relate to your locality or GP practice but not to you personally.

Information gathered by The Sound Doctor Ltd includes the user’s IP address, how many times the website is accessed and how long each visit lasts. This information will not be shared with third parties. 

When you access the site we collect some information directly. One way is by using cookies. These are small files that will give us information about how you used the site and what information was of interest to you. You are not identified personally in any way.

The Sound Doctor will not disclose any of your personally identifiable information without your permission except under special circumstances. Any information collected by The Sound Doctor will be treated confidentially.

Please remember that any information you reveal, including personally identifiable information in a public forum such as in a discussion forum or a chat, is not subject to this Privacy Policy and can be seen by third parties unrelated to The Sound Doctor. It is therefore important that you carefully consider what information you disclose in these areas. Similarly if you go to third party sites, The Sound Doctor is no longer responsible for the content or the privacy policy. Please do check the privacy policy of any third party site you end up on. 

Managing data confidentiality

We take data protection very seriously. Your Data is kept securely.  Our cloud provider is Hetzner, hosting is entirely within the EEA, and data is backed up to a second  data centre in Germany.  Our cloud provider is ISO 27001 certified. Data is encrypted at rest and in transmission, using encryption standard TDE. We are Cyber Essentials certified. 

The data centre has a maintenance schedule which ensures that all updates and patches have been applied.  Updates are notified to the data centre’s system administrators in order that they apply them in accordance with timescales specified in the Patch Management Policy.  Updates are typically implemented outside of normal UK working hours and in all instances down time is minimised.

If you have any concerns about data breaches, these can be brought to the ICO.  

Risk Management

At The Sound Doctor, our risk management policy is designed to identify, assess, and mitigate potential risks that could impact our ability to deliver high-quality health education resources. We are committed to maintaining the highest standards of operational integrity and ensuring the safety and effectiveness of our educational materials. Our risk management framework encompasses regular reviews and updates to our content to ensure accuracy, compliance with relevant regulations, and alignment with the latest healthcare guidelines. We engage with medical experts to validate our information, employ rigorous data security measures to protect user privacy, and conduct thorough assessments of our delivery platforms to ensure accessibility and reliability.

The Sound Doctor will operate by the following Code of Conduct

By using this site, you agree with the terms of this Privacy Policy. When you submit the limited amount of information required to operate this site effectively you consent to the collection and use of this material according to this Privacy Policy.

The Sound Doctor sometimes requires that you Log In or register to access the material depending on your GP practice or other licensing body. If you do create a secure personal account we collect your name, email address, your phone number (where you agree to provide it) and your password. We will not pass on this information to any third party under any circumstances unless you give us your express consent. Often there is no requirement to register or log in. You just need to click on a link which is specific to a GP practice or NHS region, and there is then no personal data collected.

If we become aware of a child accessing the app, we will take steps to remove any data if it has been collected. However, we have a course which is intended for children and where no data is collected. You just click and watch. 

We will only ever collect the minimum amount of information necessary for you to use the site.

Your GP practice may require you to provide limited information (such as your postcode and e-mail address) in order to benefit from the website.

The Sound Doctor will not pass on any details you provide to any third parties. However we will need to ensure that we can provide you with updates to the site, new films and other material added. In some circumstances this may require that we send you a short e-mail alerting you to changes but usually this will be done through your local practice. If there are any changes in regard to data collection, as affects this privacy policy,  we will seek to obtain your consent again. 

We may also contact you to ask if you are willing to take part in feedback about the content you have watched in order to help us create the most useful content possible.

The Sound Doctor cookie usage

Cookie	Description	Type
__utma	Google Analytics – Unique ID representing you	Persistent for 2 years
__utmb	Google Analytics – Timestamp of the exact moment in time when you enter our website	Persistent for 2 years
__utmc	Google Analytics – Timestamp of the exact moment in time when you enter our website	Session
__utmz	Google Analytics – Stores the referral type for how you found our website (direct, search result, ad link)	Persistent for 6 months
textSize	The Sound Doctor – stores the size of the text on the site to allow users to view content at their preferred size	Session
sessions	The Sound Doctor – enables login functionality	Persistent for upto 1 month

You can manage cookies through your web browser settings.

The Sound Doctor videos are hosted externally with Vimeo and their cookie policy can be viewed here.