Privacy Policy

1. Introduction

DentalClinicDirectory.ca ("we", "us" or "our") operates the website dentalclinicdirectory.ca, an independent directory of dental clinics. This Privacy Policy explains what information we collect, how we use and disclose it, and how you can ask us to correct or remove information.

We handle personal information in accordance with Canada's Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) and other applicable privacy laws.

2. Please Do Not Send Health Information

We do not ask for or intentionally collect information about anyone's health or dental care. This website does not book appointments or provide patient or dental-care advice. Please do not include health information about yourself or anyone else in contact forms, emails or other messages to us. If we become aware that health information has been sent to us, we will not use it for dental-care purposes and will delete or redact it from our active records when reasonably possible, subject to any legal, security or record-retention requirements.

3. Information We Collect

3.1 Clinic Listings

Each listing is one clinic location and shows only clinic-level business information: the clinic's name, address, phone number, website, hours and the treatments it offers or advertises. This information comes from publicly available sources, such as Google business profiles and the clinic's own website. We do not create pages for individual dentists.

We do not copy registration records, practice restrictions or disciplinary history into our listings. Instead, we link to the RCDSO public register, where you can check any dentist.

3.2 Clinic Email Addresses

We may record an email address that a clinic publishes on its own website, together with the page where we found it, the date, the text around it and the result of a check for any notice that the clinic does not want commercial email. We keep this record as evidence of where and when the address was published. We do not use email addresses taken from regulators' registers or third-party directories to contact clinics.

3.3 Information You Provide

• Claiming a listing: your name, email address, phone number and role at the clinic, and the clinic's declared registration composition (whether the dentists practising at the location are general practitioners, certified specialists or both).
• Specialist checks: if a clinic declares that certified specialists practise there, the name, RCDSO registration number and specialty of each specialist, so that we can check them on the RCDSO public register.
• Practice name approval: if a clinic sends us evidence of its RCDSO practice name approval, we keep the date we checked it and a short note of what we saw.
• Contact and correction requests: your name, email address and message.
• Payments: if a clinic subscribes to a paid plan, billing details are processed by Stripe. We do not store card numbers.

3.4 Automatically Collected Information

When you visit the website, we may automatically collect your IP address and approximate location, browser type and operating system, pages visited and the referring website. For claimed listings, we count clicks on a clinic's phone number and website link and show the totals to that clinic; these counts are never used to calculate any fee.

4. How We Use Information

• To operate the directory and keep listings accurate
• To process claims, registration composition declarations, specialist checks and practice name checks
• To send transactional emails, such as claim verification, sign-in links, reconfirmation reminders, account and security notices, and subscription confirmations
• To process payments for paid plans through Stripe
• To respond to enquiries and correction or removal requests
• To improve the website and keep it secure
• To comply with legal obligations

5. Email Communications

• Transactional emails to clinics that have claimed a listing, as listed in section 4.
• Listing notices: we may send a clinic an email about its own listing — that the listing exists and how to claim or correct it — only to an address the clinic publishes for business contact on its own website, and only when we found no notice that it does not want commercial email. Every listing notice identifies us and includes a working unsubscribe link; unsubscribing takes effect promptly.
• Listing summaries: we may send a claimed clinic a summary of its listing traffic. Clinics can opt out at any time.

We comply with Canada's Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL).

6. Third-Party Services

• Stripe: to process subscription payments. Stripe's Privacy Policy.
• Google Maps: to show maps and directions on listing pages. Loading an embedded map may send information such as your IP address and page URL to Google.
• Hosting and email providers: to run the website and send email on our behalf.

Some of these providers may process information outside Canada. We do not sell personal information.

7. Cookies

We use a small number of cookies that are necessary for the website to work, such as keeping clinic owners signed in to their dashboard. We do not currently use Google AdSense or place advertising cookies ourselves. Listing pages may include embedded Google Maps; when a map loads, your browser connects to Google, which may use cookies or similar technologies under Google's own privacy policies. You can block or delete cookies in your browser settings; some features may not work without them.

8. Data Retention

We keep personal information only as long as needed for the purposes in this policy. Listing information is kept while the listing is active. Claim, declaration, specialist-check and payment records are kept for as long as needed for accounting, legal and compliance purposes. Records of where and when a clinic's email address was published are kept so that we can show the basis for any listing notice we sent.

9. Your Rights

Depending on applicable federal or provincial privacy law, you may have the right to access and correct your personal information, and to withdraw consent subject to legal or contractual restrictions. To make a request, email support@dentalclinicdirectory.ca.

10. Correcting or Removing a Listing

To correct or remove a listing, use the "Report an error" link on the listing page or email support@dentalclinicdirectory.ca with the subject "Remove Listing". We act on these requests promptly.

11. Security

We use reasonable technical and organizational safeguards, including HTTPS encryption, payment processing through Stripe and access controls on our systems. No method of transmission over the Internet is completely secure.

12. Children's Privacy

This website is not directed to children, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children.

13. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. Changes will be posted on this page with an updated date. If a change requires consent under applicable law, we will obtain that consent before the new use or disclosure takes effect.

14. Contact

Our privacy contact is responsible for how we handle personal information. For privacy questions or requests, email support@dentalclinicdirectory.ca or use our contact page.

If you are not satisfied with our response, you can contact the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada.