Skip to content

Privacy policy

Pharmacy Finder (PF) is a marketing platform that provides information to the general public about the expertise and services available at community pharmacies across the United Kingdom.

This policy sets out PF’s commitment to ensuring that any personal data, including special category personal data, which PF processes, is carried out in compliance with data protection law. PF ensures that good data protection practice is embedded in the culture of our staff and our organisation. This Privacy Policy sets out how we use and protect any information that you give us when you use this website.

What we collect

PF is a platform that people may use to get in touch directly with our partner community pharmacy teams. There are forms on the website for the purpose of connecting people with community pharmacy services on behalf of our community pharmacy partners. To complete this task we ask for the following information. We use this information only for completing bookings and do not store this information after we pass patient/customer details to our partner pharmacies.

  • Forename.
  • Surname.
  • E-mail address.
  • Phone number (optional).
  • Preferred location of community pharmacy service.

Collection and use of personal information

‘Data Protection Law’ includes the General Data Protection Regulation 2016/679; the UK Data Protection Act 2018 and all relevant EU and UK data protection legislation.

This policy applies to all personal data processed by PF. All PF staff are expected to comply with this policy and failure to comply may lead to disciplinary action for misconduct, including dismissal.

Data protection principles

PF complies with the data protection principles set out below. When processing personal data, it ensures that:

  • It is processed lawfully, fairly and in a transparent manner in relation to the data subject (‘lawfulness, fairness and transparency’).
  • It is collected for specified, explicit and legitimate purposes and not further processed in a manner that is incompatible with those purposes (‘purpose limitation’).
  • It is all adequate, relevant and limited to what is necessary in relation to the purposes for which they are processed (‘data minimisation’).
  • It is all accurate and, where necessary, kept up to date and that reasonable steps will be taken to ensure that personal data that are inaccurate, having regard to the purposes for which they are processed, are erased or rectified without delay (‘accuracy’).
  • It is kept in a form which permits the identification of data subjects for no longer than is necessary for the purposes for which the personal data are processed (‘storage limitation’).
  • It is processed in a manner that ensures appropriate security of the personal data, including protection against unauthorised or unlawful processing and against accidental loss, destruction or damage, using appropriate technical or organisational measures (‘integrity and confidentiality’).
  • PF will facilitate any request from a data subject who wishes to exercise their rights under data protection law as appropriate, always communicating in a concise, transparent, intelligible and easily accessible form and without undue delay.

Process – procedures – guidance

PF will:

  • Ensure that the legal basis for processing personal data is identified in advance and that all processing complies with the law.
  • Not do anything with your data that you would not expect given the content of this policy and the fair processing or privacy notice.
  • Ensure that appropriate privacy notices are in place advising staff and others how and why their data is being processed, and, in particular, advising data subjects of their rights.
  • Only collect and process the personal data that it needs for purposes it has identified in advance.
  • Ensure that, as far as possible, the personal data it holds is accurate, or a system is in place for ensuring that it is kept up to date as far as possible.
  • Only hold onto your personal data for as long as it is needed, after which time PF will securely erase or delete the personal data.
  • Ensure that appropriate security measures are in place to ensure that personal data can only be accessed by those who need to access it and that it is held and transferred securely.

PF will ensure that all staff who handle personal data on its behalf are aware of their responsibilities under this policy and other relevant data protection and information security policies and that they are adequately trained and supervised.

Breaching this policy may result in disciplinary action for misconduct, including dismissal. Obtaining (including accessing) or disclosing personal data in breach of PF’s data protection policies may also be a criminal offence.

Data Subject Rights

PF has processes in place to ensure that it can facilitate any request made by an individual to exercise their rights under data protection law.

All requests will be considered without undue delay and within one month of receipt as far as possible.

Subject access: the right to request information about how personal data is being processed, including whether personal data is being processed and the right to be allowed access to that data and to be provided with a copy of that data along with the right to obtain the following information:

  • The purpose of the processing.
  • The categories of personal data.
  • The recipients to whom data has been disclosed or which will be disclosed.
  • The retention period.
  • The right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office.

Rectification: the right to allow a data subject to rectify inaccurate personal data concerning them.

Erasure: the right to have data erased and to have confirmation of erasure, but only where:

The data is no longer necessary in relation to the purpose for which it was collected, or where consent is withdrawn, or where there is no legal basis for the processing, or there is a legal obligation to delete data

Restriction of processing: the right to ask for certain processing to be restricted in the following circumstances:

If the accuracy of the personal data is being contested, or if our processing is unlawful but the data subject does not want it erased, or if the data is no longer needed for the purpose of the processing but it is required by the data subject for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims, or if the data subject has objected to the processing, pending verification of that objection.

Links to other websites

Our website may contain links to other websites. However, once you have used these links to leave our site, be aware that we do not have any control over that website. Therefore, we cannot be responsible for the protection and privacy of any information which you provide whilst visiting such sites, as they are not governed by this Privacy Statement. You should exercise caution and check their Privacy Policy.

Embedded content from other websites

Articles on this site may include embedded content (e.g. videos, images, articles, etc.). Embedded content from other websites behaves in the exact same way as if the visitor has visited the other website.

These websites may collect data about you, use cookies, embed additional third-party tracking, and monitor your interaction with that embedded content, including tracking your interaction with the embedded content if you have an account and are logged in to that website.

Cookie policy

This site uses cookies – small text files that are placed on your machine to help the site provide a better user experience.

In general, cookies are used to retain user preferences, store information for things like shopping carts, and provide anonymised tracking data to third party applications like Google Analytics. As a rule, cookies will make your browsing experience better.

However, you may prefer to disable cookies on this site and on others. The most effective way to do this is to disable cookies in your browser.

We suggest consulting the Help section of your browser or taking a look at the About Cookies website which offers guidance for all modern browsers.

Google Analytics

This website uses Google Analytics, a web analytics service provided by Google, Inc. (“Google”). Google Analytics uses “cookies”, which are text files placed on your computer, to help the website analyze how users use the site. The information generated by the cookie about your use of the website (including your IP address) will be transmitted to and stored by Google on servers in the United States. Google will use this information for the purpose of evaluating your use of the website, compiling reports on website activity for website operators and providing other services relating to website activity and internet usage.  Google may also transfer this information to third parties where required to do so by law, or where such third parties process the information on Google’s behalf. Google will not associate your IP address with any other data held by Google. You may refuse the use of cookies by selecting the appropriate settings on your browser, however, please note that if you do this you may not be able to use the full functionality of this website.  By using this website, you consent to the processing of data about you by Google in the manner and for the purposes set out above.

The Directors of PF take ultimate responsibility for data protection.

If you have any concerns or wish to exercise any of your rights under the GDPR, then you can contact the data protection lead in the following ways:

Name             Johnathan Laird

Email              johnathan@pip.scot

Complaints procedure

You can view our complaints procedure here.

If you have any questions about our policy, please contact johnathan@pip.scot.

This policy was last updated on 27 October 2022 and shall be regularly monitored and reviewed, at least every two years.