Privacy Policy – Optometry Ireland

Privacy Policy

The Association of Optometrist’s Ireland T/a Optometry Ireland is committed to protecting and respecting your privacy.  We adhere to the OI Code of Conduct on Privacy (the “Code”) and the Code and this Privacy Policy (the “Policy”) together with any disclaimers sets out the basis on which any personal data we collect from you or that you provide to us, or that is provided to us relating to you (“Data”) by any means will be processed. 

Please read the following carefully to understand our use of personal data. Please note that the Policy relates only to living individuals in relation to personal data relating directly to themselves, and not to persons in any other capacity.

Information we may collect from you

We collect personal data from you which you volunteer when you provide such personal data to us, or via our services with which you interact. We may also be given other personal data relating to you by other persons, or we may obtain such other personal data about you as may be provided to us in the course of our legitimate business activities.

We collect and process Data. Including but not limited to the following in the course of providing services to you:

your full name; your address; your various email addresses; your various phone numbers including mobile phone numbers; your nationality; your address; financial information about you, including your bank account details, credit card details, or other payment details; your date of birth; details of your children and other relations; medical details, including details of allergies; PPSN and all other Data which you ask us to process on your behalf, or which is necessary for us to process in order for us to fulfil our role as providing optical related services to you.

We may also process other data, which is not personal data.

When you access our website or wi-fi facilities, your device’s browser provides us with information such as your IP address, browser type, access time and referring URL which is collected and used to compile statistical data. This information may be used to help us to improve our website and the services we offer, and to offer services to you. 

Security and where we store your personal data

In line with the OI Code of Conduct for handling personal data and the GDPR we are committed to protecting the privacy of your personal data. We use a variety of Technical and organisational measures (TOMS) and security technologies and procedures to help protect your personal data from unauthorised access and use. 

We store your data in secured filing systems on our premises, within our practice management software and our accounting systems

We share your data only with relevant third parties, in a secure manner and only with your consent – these include but are not limited to your GP, other opticians, Your Health Insurance Company and other authorised recipients linked to your care.

The transmission of information via the internet is not completely secure and may involve the transfer of data to countries outside of the European Economic Area (EEA). This occurs typically through use of cloud solutions for web hosting, email hosting or proprietary software solutions delivered to us through the Cloud. We do not however authorise any third party to use your personal data for their own purposes. Non EEA countries may not provide an adequate level of protection in relation to processing your personal data. By submitting your data, you agree to this transfer, storing and processing.

Although we will do our best to protect your personal data, we cannot guarantee the security of your personal data transmitted to us. Any transmission of data is at your own risk. Once we receive your personal data, we use appropriate security measures to seek to prevent unauthorised access.

Uses made of your personal data

We use your personal data that we hold to:

  • Give advice
  • Make claims to relevant government departments and/or insurance companies 
  • carry out our obligations arising from any contracts entered into between you and relevant providers
  • comply with legislation; and/or
  • notify you about changes to our services.

We may use your data to send you information relating to our services, events and products which may be of interest to you. If you do not want us to use your data in this way, please notify us to that effect. 

We keep your Data for varying periods according to our Retention Schedule and in line with relevant legislation and recommendations. 

Optometry Ireland do not use cookies. Learn more Cookie Policy

Disclosure of your information

We may disclose your Data to third parties who provide a service to us or if we are under a duty to disclose or share your Data in order to comply with any legal obligation, or to protect our rights, property, or safety of staff or customers. Currently we disclose your Data to the following providers:

Provider / RecipientState “EU” or alternatively state jurisdiction to which the Data is transferred
Arachas InsuranceIreland
E J Lynch & AssociatesIreland
VBTIreland
Bank of IrelandIreland
CORUIreland
WhatsAppIreland
Revenue Commissioners (staff)Ireland
Google RemoteIreland
HSEIreland
PCRSIreland
DEASPIreland
All necessary government bodiesIreland

Some jurisdictions may not have adequate safeguards for the protection of personal data, and where this is the case we comply with Chapter 5 of the General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”) to provide an alternative method of safeguarding your personal data.

Links to other sites

Our website may, from time to time, contain links to and from other websites. If you follow a link to any of those websites, please note that those websites have their own privacy policies and that we do not accept any responsibility or liability for those policies. Please check those policies before you submit any data to those websites.

Protection of the privacy of personal information

In order to protect the privacy of personal information, Association of Optometrist’s Ireland

  • takes all due care to protect personal information it holds from any loss, unauthorised access, modification, use, disclosure and disposal
  • has in place a Data Protection Breach Policy which will be used to investigate fully any potential data protection breaches
  • has in place appropriate staff training to ensure that all staff involved in processes which handle personal information are aware of their responsibilities in relation to the safeguarding and handling of personal information
  • only uses personal data for the purposes for which it was collected.
  • is registered as a Data Controller with the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner
  • is subject to the Data Protection Acts 1988 and 2003
  • is subject to the Freedom of Information Act 2014

Your rights

As an individual, under EU law you have certain rights to apply to us to provide information or make amendments to how we process data relating to you. These rights apply in certain circumstances and are set out below: –

  1. The right to access data relating to you (‘access right’).
  2. the right to rectify/correct data relating to you (‘right to rectification’
  3. The right to object to processing of data relating to you (‘right to object’). 
  4. The right to restrict the processing of data relating to you (‘right to restriction’). 
  5. The right to erase/delete data relating to you (i.e. the “right to erasure”). 
  6. The right to ‘port’ certain data relating to you from one organisation to another (‘right to data portability’).

The controller for the purposes of GDPR is: Association of Optometrist’s Ireland T/a Optometry Ireland

Changes to this policy

We reserve the right to change this Policy from time to time in our sole discretion. If we make any changes, we will post those changes here so that you can see what information we gather, how we might use that information and in what circumstances we may disclose it. By continuing to use our site or our services or otherwise provide data after we post any such changes, you accept and agree to this Policy as modified.

Contact Us

Questions, comments, requests and complaints regarding this Policy and the information we hold are welcome and should be addressed to us at info@aoi.ie

All requests will be dealt with promptly and efficiently.