Privacy Policy

1A note on this website

This website is where you book appointments and browse the collection. Frames are bought in the practice, not online. The site uses cookies that are necessary to operate it, and we may use analytics to understand how the site is used and improve it. You can manage cookies through your browser settings. When you request an appointment, the booking form opens a pre-filled message in WhatsApp for you to send — we don’t receive it until you choose to send.

2Personal information we collect

We may collect and process:

• Identity & contact details — your name, phone number, email and, where relevant, address.
• Appointment details — the reason for your visit and your preferred times, when you contact us to book.
• Clinical & optometric information — your examination findings, prescriptions, ocular and relevant health history and clinical images. This is health information and is treated as special personal information.
• Purchase & payment information — what you buy and the record of payment. Card payments are handled by our payment provider; we do not store your full card number.
• Medical aid details — where you claim from a medical scheme, the details needed to submit that claim.
• Communications — messages you send us by WhatsApp, email or phone.
• Technical information — standard server logs needed to deliver and secure the website.

3How we collect it

Mostly directly from you — when you book, visit the practice, message us or buy from us. Some information is generated during your care (your clinical record), and some comes from third parties acting on your behalf or ours, such as a referring practitioner, your medical scheme, or our payment provider.

4Why we use it, and our lawful basis

Under POPIA we process your information to:

• provide optometric care and dispense eyewear, and keep the clinical records the HPCSA requires us to keep (performance of our agreement with you, and our legal and professional obligations);
• manage appointments, enquiries, orders, payments and returns (performance of our agreement with you);
• submit medical aid claims where you ask us to (with your consent);
• keep you informed about your care and, only with your consent, send you news or offers (see clause 8);
• protect the security of our practice and website, and comply with the law.

We only process your health information for the purpose of providing your care and related administration, on the bases POPIA allows for special personal information.

5Children

We examine children from the age of six. Where a patient is a minor, we collect and process their information with the consent of a parent or guardian and use it only to provide their care.

6Who we share it with

We do not sell your personal information. We share it only as needed:

• Operators acting for us — for example our booking tool, our card payment provider, and IT and hosting providers — each bound to process it only on our instructions and to keep it secure.
• Dispensing partners — the laboratories and houses that make up your lenses or supply your frames, to the extent needed to fulfil your order.
• Your medical scheme — where you claim.
• Regulators, professional bodies and authorities — where the law or our professional obligations require it.

7Information processed outside South Africa

Some of our operators — for example website hosting, messaging and payment processing — may store or process information on servers outside South Africa. Where that happens, we take reasonable steps to ensure your information receives a level of protection consistent with POPIA, as required by section 72.

8Marketing

We send marketing only where you have agreed to receive it, and you can opt out at any time — reply to unsubscribe, tell us in the practice, or write to info@optik.co.za. Messages about your care, appointments or orders are not marketing and may be sent as part of providing our service.

9How long we keep it

We keep clinical records for the period required of health practitioners — generally at least six years from the date of the last entry, and longer for minors and in other cases the HPCSA specifies. Other information is kept only for as long as needed for the purpose we collected it or as the law requires, after which it is deleted or de-identified.

10How we protect it

We take appropriate, reasonable technical and organisational measures to keep your information secure and to guard against loss, damage and unauthorised access, as POPIA requires. No system is perfectly secure; if a breach affects your information, we will act as the law requires, including notifying you and the Information Regulator where applicable.

11Your rights

Under POPIA you have the right to:

• ask what information we hold about you and request access to it;
• ask us to correct or delete information that is wrong or outdated;
• object, on reasonable grounds, to certain processing, and withdraw consent where we rely on it;
• not receive unsolicited direct marketing, and not be subject to a decision based solely on automated processing.

To exercise these rights, contact our Information Officer at info@optik.co.za. Some requests may be subject to the process and forms under the Promotion of Access to Information Act.

12Complaints

If you are unhappy with how we handle your information, please tell us first so we can put it right. You also have the right to complain to the Information Regulator:

The Information Regulator (South Africa)
JD House, 27 Stiemens Street, Braamfontein, Johannesburg 2001
enquiries@inforegulator.org.za · POPIAComplaints@inforegulator.org.za

13Changes to this policy

We may update this policy from time to time. The current version is always the one on this page, and the “last updated” date above shows when it last changed.

14Contact us

Melrose Arch, Shop SL24, Johannesburg 2076
Telephone 011 684 2833 · WhatsApp 062 787 5749
info@optik.co.za