Privacy policy.

Silk Clinical Aesthetics is a nurse-led cosmetic and clinical skin clinic at 66 Victoria Street, Christchurch Central, Christchurch. Our New Zealand Business Number is 9429050809622. In this policy, “we”, “us” and “our” mean Silk Clinical Aesthetics.

We are an agency under the Privacy Act 2020 and a health agency under the Health Information Privacy Code 2020. Both apply to the information we hold about you.

Depending on how you deal with us, we may collect:

• Contact details. Your name, email address, phone number, and where relevant your postal address.
• Booking and payment details. The appointments you make, the treatments you book, deposit and payment records, gift voucher records, and your contact preferences.
• Health information. Your medical history, medicines and allergies, previous cosmetic and skin treatments, relevant medical conditions, pregnancy or breastfeeding status where it affects treatment, consent records, treatment records, product batch numbers, and clinical notes about your outcomes and any adverse events.
• Photographs. Clinical photographs taken before, during, or after treatment, where you have consented to them. Consent for clinical records is separate from consent to use an image publicly, and you can give one without the other.
• Enquiries and correspondence. What you tell us in emails, phone calls, website contact form submissions, and messages sent to our social media accounts.
• Website information. Standard technical information about your visit, such as pages viewed, approximate location, device and browser type, and the site that referred you. See Website analytics and cookies below.

We collect information directly from you wherever we can. Some information reaches us from other sources, for example a referral from another health provider, or booking details entered through our online booking system.

We collect and use your information to:

• Assess whether a treatment is safe and appropriate for you, and plan it.
• Obtain and record your informed consent.
• Deliver treatment safely and keep an accurate clinical record.
• Manage your bookings, deposits, payments, and gift vouchers.
• Contact you about your appointments, aftercare, and follow-up review.
• Respond to your enquiries.
• Meet our professional, regulatory, and legal obligations, including product traceability and adverse event reporting.
• Send you clinic news or offers, where you have asked to receive them. You can unsubscribe at any time.
• Understand how our website is used so we can improve it.

We do not sell your personal information, and we do not share your health information for marketing purposes.

Health information is sensitive, and we treat it that way. It is handled under the Health Information Privacy Code 2020, which sets specific rules for health agencies on top of the Privacy Act 2020.

Your clinical record is available to the clinical team involved in your care, including the registered nurse treating you and the prescriber providing oversight for prescription medicines. It is not available to anyone else at the clinic who does not need it to do their job.

We will not disclose your health information outside the clinic without your authorisation, unless the Code or the law allows or requires it. That includes situations such as a serious threat to someone’s health or safety, a lawful request from a regulator or court, or a request for care from another treating health provider where disclosure is permitted.

Clinical photography helps us assess your skin over time and document treatment outcomes. We take photographs only with your consent, and we record that consent.

Using a photograph publicly, for example on our website or social media, requires separate written consent that names how and where the image may be used. You can decline, and you can withdraw that consent later by contacting us. Withdrawing consent stops future use; we cannot always retrieve material already shared or reposted by others.

We share information only where it is necessary, and only with parties who are required to protect it:

• Fresha. Our online booking, client record, and payment platform. Bookings you make online, gift voucher purchases, and card payments are processed through Fresha, which holds the booking and payment information associated with your account and applies its own privacy terms.
• Payment processors. Card payments are handled by our payment provider. We do not store full card numbers.
• Other health providers. Where you ask us to, or where it is necessary for your care, such as a referral or a report to your doctor.
• Regulators and authorities. Where reporting is required, for example adverse event reporting relating to a medicine or medical device.
• Service providers. Providers who help us run the clinic and this website, such as email, website hosting, and analytics providers. They may only use the information to provide the service to us.

Some of these providers store information on servers outside New Zealand. Where information is sent overseas, we take reasonable steps to ensure it is protected by comparable safeguards, as required by the Privacy Act 2020.

Our live website uses Google Tag Manager, which loads Google analytics tags so we can see how the site is used in aggregate: which pages are visited, how visitors arrive, and which enquiries and bookings the site generates. Analytics does not run on our preview or staging sites.

This analytics data is about website use, not about your treatment. We do not combine it with your clinical record. You can block or delete cookies in your browser settings, and you can opt out of Google Analytics using the browser add-on published by Google. Blocking cookies may affect how parts of the site behave.

Our online booking pages are hosted by Fresha and set their own cookies under Fresha’s privacy terms.

Clinical records are held in our practice management system with access limited to staff who need it. Paper records, such as signed consent forms, are held securely at the clinic. Access is controlled by individual logins, and staff are bound by confidentiality obligations as a condition of their employment and, for our nurses, by their professional obligations to the Nursing Council of New Zealand.

We take reasonable technical and operational steps to protect information against loss, misuse, and unauthorised access. No system is completely secure, so we cannot guarantee absolute security. If a privacy breach occurs that is likely to cause serious harm, we will notify you and the Office of the Privacy Commissioner as required by the Privacy Act 2020.

Health information is retained for at least ten years from the date of the last service provided to you, as required by the Health (Retention of Health Information) Regulations 1996. Some records are kept longer where there is a clinical or legal reason to do so.

Other information, such as marketing contact details, is kept only while we need it. If you unsubscribe, we keep the minimum record needed to make sure we do not contact you again.

Under the Privacy Act 2020 and the Health Information Privacy Code 2020, you have the right to:

• Ask for confirmation that we hold information about you, and ask for access to it.
• Ask us to correct information you believe is wrong, or to attach a statement of correction if we do not agree to change it.
• Withdraw consent you have given, for example consent to marketing or to public use of a photograph.

To make a request, email bookings@silkclinical.co.nz or write to us at the clinic address below. We may need to confirm your identity before releasing information. We will respond within 20 working days. Access to health information is free; there may be a reasonable charge for other requests, which we will tell you about first. In limited cases the Act allows us to withhold information, and if we do, we will tell you why.

If you are unhappy with how we have handled your information, please contact us first at bookings@silkclinical.co.nz or on 03 365 5774. We would rather hear from you and put it right.

You can also complain to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner at privacy.org.nz, which can investigate complaints about how agencies handle personal and health information.

We review this policy from time to time and will publish any updated version on this page with a new effective date. The version on this page is the current one.

Silk Clinical Aesthetics
66 Victoria Street, Christchurch Central, Christchurch 8013
NZBN 9429050809622
bookings@silkclinical.co.nz
03 365 5774

See also our terms of service.