Who is responsible for your information?
I am Karen Brooks, trading as Karen Brooks Nutrition, based in Holmfirth, West Yorkshire. I decide how information given to my practice is used and am registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO). You can contact me about privacy at karenbrooks@protonmail.com or on 07969 988029.
What information do I receive?
If you use the contact form, I ask for your name, email address and the general type of service you are interested in. It does not ask for symptoms or medical details. If you email or telephone me, I receive the contact details and information you choose to give me. For clients, I also keep questionnaires, health and medical history, information about food, lifestyle, medication and supplements, consultation notes, plans, correspondence and relevant test results. I may receive results from a testing laboratory or information from another practitioner where you have agreed to this. I keep payment and invoice information for my business records.
The website has no client account or newsletter sign-up. Its email links open your own email service, and direct messages are sent to my Proton Mail account.
Why do I use it?
I use enquiries to reply and discuss whether my services are suitable. I use client information to provide nutritional therapy, arrange consultations, prepare and review recommendations, communicate with you and keep appropriate professional and financial records.
For enquiries and services you request, I rely on taking steps towards, and carrying out, our contract. I also use information where needed to meet legal duties and to keep appropriate records of my work. Health information has additional protection under data protection law; I use the condition for providing health care when handling it as part of nutritional therapy, subject to my professional duty of confidentiality. Where I ask for your permission for a particular disclosure, you can change your mind by contacting me, although I may still have to retain records required for other reasons.
Who might receive it?
I keep your information confidential. With your permission, and where relevant to your care, I may share appropriate information with a testing laboratory, your GP or another practitioner. My client paperwork includes a choice about this, and I check with you before sharing. Information may also be disclosed where I am required or permitted by law, or in an urgent situation where someone’s safety is at risk.
Services needed to run my practice may handle limited information: Formspree receives online contact form submissions and sends me an email notification at my Proton Mail address; Proton Mail handles email; Zoom handles online consultations; Stripe handles payments made through Stripe; and my bank handles bank transfers. OpenAI hosts this website. I do not receive your full payment-card details when you pay through Stripe.
How is it kept, and for how long?
Paper client files are kept in a locked filing cabinet. Electronic client files are kept on my computer and backed up to a separate external drive. I do not use a client practice platform or OneDrive, iCloud or Google Drive to store these files. Email correspondence is held in Proton Mail.
If you enquire but do not become a client, I keep the related emails and any written notes for up to six months after our last contact, then delete or securely dispose of them. Formspree’s free plan holds a copy of form submissions for up to 30 days. If you become a client, relevant enquiry information may become part of your client record and follows the client-record retention period below. I may keep particular information longer where there is a specific legal reason, such as an ongoing complaint or claim.
I keep adult client records for eight years after the last appointment, in line with the CNHC Code of Conduct. Payment records are kept for the period required by applicable financial and tax rules.
Website visits and cookies
The website host receives technical information needed to deliver and protect the site, which may include your IP address and browser details. If you submit the contact form, the information goes to Formspree, which may also handle technical details needed to deliver it and check for spam. The site loads its fonts from Google, so your browser also connects to Google’s font service.
I use Cloudflare Web Analytics to see overall figures such as page visits and how the site performs, so I can improve it. Cloudflare says its analytics script does not use cookies or read browser storage, and it does not track people across websites. I do not use these figures for advertising or to identify visitors. Your browser connects to Cloudflare when the analytics script is loaded.
You can turn off visitor statistics for this browser at any time. The site saves your choice in your browser so the analytics script will not load on later visits. If you clear your browser data or use another browser, you may need to make the choice again.
Processing outside the UK
Some of the services named above may process information outside the UK. Their privacy and data-processing terms describe their arrangements for international transfers: Formspree, OpenAI Sites, Zoom, Stripe, Proton, Cloudflare and Google. You can contact me if you would like more detail about a service involved in handling your information.
Your choices and rights
You can ask me what information I hold about you and request a copy. You may also ask for inaccurate information to be corrected, for processing to be restricted or objected to, or for information to be deleted where the law allows. Some rights depend on why the information is being used, and record-keeping duties may mean I cannot delete everything immediately. If you have given permission for a particular use or disclosure, you may withdraw that permission by contacting me.
Please write to karenbrooks@protonmail.com with any question or concern about your information. If you are dissatisfied with my response, you can complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office.