privacy and data protection policies
This is the privacy notice of Charlotte Hales (‘we’, ‘our’, or ‘us’).
Contact details
Person: Charlotte Hales
Email: charlotte@charlottehales.com
Postal address: Calle Octavio López 8, 2-1, Torre del Mar (Málaga), 29740, Spain
Privacy notice
We hold some information about you. This document outlines how that information is used, who we may share that information with and how we keep it secure. This notice does not provide exhaustive detail. However, we are happy to provide any additional information or explanation needed. Any requests for this should be sent to the charlotte@charlottehales.com. We keep our Privacy Notice under regular review. This Privacy Notice was last reviewed in July 2026.
What we do
We provide nutritional therapy services to clients to improve their health through diet and lifestyle interventions. We focus on preventative healthcare, the optimisation of physical and mental health and chronic health conditions. Through nutritional therapy consultations, dietary and lifestyle analysis and biochemical testing, we aim to understand the underlying causes of your health issues which we will seek to address through personalised dietary therapy, nutraceutical prescription (supplements) and lifestyle advice.
How we obtain your personal data
Information provided by you
You provide us with personal data in the following ways:
by completing a nutritional therapy questionnaire
by signing a terms of engagement form
during a nutritional therapy consultation
via our website and social media platforms, including Instagram
through email, over the telephone or by post
by taking credit card and online payment
This may include the following information:
basic details such as name, address, contact details and next of kin
details of contact we have had with you such as referrals and appointment requests
health information including your previous medical history, dietary, lifestyle, supplement and medicine details, biochemical test results, clinic notes and health improvement plans
GP contact information
bank details
We use this information in order to provide you with direct healthcare. This means that the legal basis of our holding your personal data is for legitimate interest.
Following completion of your healthcare we retain your personal data for the period defined by our professional association BANT and registrant body, Complementary and Natural Healthcare Council (CNHC). This enables us to process any complaint you may make. In this case the legal basis of our holding your personal data is for contract administration.
Information we get from other sources
We may obtain sensitive medical information in the form of test results from biochemical testing companies. We use this information in order to provide you with direct healthcare. This means that the legal basis of our holding your personal data is for legitimate interest.
We may obtain sensitive information from other healthcare providers. The provision of this information is subject to you giving us your express consent. If we do not receive this consent from you, we will not be able to coordinate your healthcare with that provided by other providers which means the healthcare provided by us may be less effective.
We may also obtain information as a result of monitoring how you use our website or our services.
How we use your personal data
We act as a data controller for use of your personal data to provide direct healthcare. We also act as a controller and processor in regard to the processing of your data from third parties such as testing companies and other healthcare providers. We act as a data controller and processor in regard to the processing of credit card and online payments.
We undertake at all times to protect your personal data, including any health and contact details, in a manner which is consistent with our duty of professional confidence and the requirements of the UK and EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) concerning data protection. We will also take reasonable security measures to protect your personal data storage.
We may use your personal data where there is an overriding public interest in using the information e.g. in order to safeguard an individual, or to prevent a serious crime. Also where there is a legal requirement such as a formal court order. We may use your data for marketing purposes such as newsletters but this would be subject to you giving us your express consent.
Do we share your information with other organisations?
We will keep information about you confidential. We will only disclose your information with other third parties with your express consent with the exception of the following categories of third parties:
our registrant body, Complementary and Natural Healthcare Council (CNHC) and our professional association, BANT, for the processing of a complaint made by you
any contractors and advisors that provide a service to us or act as our agents on the understanding that they keep the information confidential
anyone to whom we may transfer our rights and duties under any agreement we have with you
any legal or crime prevention agencies and/or to satisfy any regulatory request (eg, CNHC) if we have a duty to do so or if the law allows us to do so
We may share your information with supplement companies and biochemical testing companies as part of providing you with direct healthcare. We will not include any sensitive information
We will seek your express consent before sharing your information with your GP or other healthcare providers. However, if we believe that your life is in danger then we may pass your information onto an appropriate authority (such as the police, social services in the case of a child or vulnerable adult, or GP in case of self-harm) using the legal basis of vital interests.
We may share your case history in an anonymised form with our peers for the purpose of professional development. This may be at clinical supervision meetings, conferences, online forums, and through publishing in medical journals, trade magazines or online professional sites. We will seek your explicit consent before processing your data in this way.
What are your rights?
Every individual has the right to see, amend, delete or have a copy, of data held that can identify you, with some exceptions. You do not need to give a reason to see your data.
If you want to access your data you must make a subject access request in writing to charlotte@charlottehales.com. Under special circumstances, some information may be withheld. We shall respond within 20 working days from the point of receiving the request and all necessary information from you. Our response will include the details of the personal data we hold on you including:
sources from which we acquired the information
the purposes of processing the information
persons or entities with whom we are sharing the information
You have the right, subject to exemptions, to ask to:
have your information deleted
have your information corrected or updated where it is no longer accurate
ask us to stop processing information about you where we are not required to do so by law or in accordance with the BANT and CNHC guidelines
receive a copy of your personal data, which you have provided to us, in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format and have the right to transmit that data to another controller, without hindrance from us
object at any time to the processing of personal data concerning you
We do not carry out any automated processing, which may lead to automated decision based on your personal data.
If you would like to invoke any of the above rights then please write to the Data Controller at Charlotte Hales, Calle Octavio López 8, 2-1, Torre del Mar (Málaga) 29740, Spain or email charlotte@charlottehales.com.
What safeguards are in place to ensure data that identifies you is secure?
We only use information that may identify you in accordance with UK and EU GDPR. This requires us to process personal data only if there is a legitimate basis for doing so and that any processing must be fair and lawful.
Within the health sector, we also have to follow the common law duty of confidence, which means that where identifiable information about you has been given in confidence, it should be treated as confidential and only shared for the purpose of providing direct healthcare. We will protect your information, inform you of how your information will be used, and allow you to decide if and how your information can be shared.
We also ensure the information we hold is kept in secure locations, restrict access to information to authorised personnel only, protect personal and confidential information held on equipment such as laptops with encryption (which masks data so that unauthorised users cannot see or make sense of it). We ensure external data processors that support us are legally and contractually bound to operate and prove security arrangements are in place where data that could or does identify a person are processed.
We are registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) as a data controller and collect data for a variety of purposes. A copy of the registration is available through the ICO website (search by business name or reference: ZC171849).
How long do we hold confidential information for?
All records held by us will be kept for the duration specified by guidance from our professional association BANT.
Website technical details
Forms
We do use electronic forms on our website making use of an available ‘forms module’ which has a number of built-in features to help ensure privacy. We also aim to use secure forms where appropriate.
Cookies
Cookies are small. We do not make use of cookies to collect any private or personally identifiable information. The technical platform of this website uses cookies solely to aid the proper technical functioning of the website. The cookies used contain random strings of characters alongside minimal information about the state and session of the website – which in no way collects or discloses any personal information about you as a visitor.
These cookies are used to collect information about how visitors use our site. We use the information to compile reports and to help us improve the site. The cookies collect information in an anonymous form, including the number of visitors to the site, where visitors have come to the site from and the pages they visited.
Advanced areas of this site may use cookies to store your presentation preferences in a purely technical fashion with no individually identifiable information. Note also our statement on analytics software below – as analytics software also uses cookies to function.
Most web browsers allow some control of most cookies through the browser settings. To find out more about cookies, including how to see what cookies have been set and how to manage and delete them, visit www.allaboutcookies.org
To opt out of being tracked by Google Analytics across all websites visit http://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout
Analytics
Like most websites, we make use of analytics software in order to help us understand the trends in popularity of our website and of different sections. We make no use of personally identifiable information in any of the statistical reports we use from this package. We use an analytics package called Google Analytics who provide details of their privacy policy on the Google website.
Other matters
Your rights
The law requires us to tell you about your rights and our obligations to you in regard to the processing and control of your personal data. We do this now, by requesting that you read the information provided at http://www.knowyourprivacyrights.org
Use of our services by children
We do not sell products or provide services for purchase by children, nor do we market to children.
Delivery of services using third party communication software
With your consent, we may communicate using software provided by a third party such as Facebook (WhatsApp), Apple (Facetime), Microsoft (Skype) or Zoom Video Communications (Zoom).
Such methods of communication should secure your personal data using encryption and other technologies. The providers of such software should comply with all applicable privacy laws, rules, and regulations, including the UK and EU GDPR. If you have any concerns about using a particular software for communication, please tell us.
Data Protection Policy
Introduction
Purpose of Policy
We need to gather and use certain information about individuals.
These can include clients, suppliers, employees and other people the organisation has a relationship with or may need to contact.
This policy describes how this personal data will be collected, handled and stored to comply with the UK General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the EU GDPR.
Policy Statement
We are committed to a policy of protecting the rights and privacy of clients, staff and others in accordance with UK and EU .
We commit to:
comply with both the law and good practice
respect individuals’ rights
be open and honest with individuals whose data is held
register our details with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO)
Personal Data
We may hold data for the following purposes:
Provision of direct healthcare
Marketing and newsletters
Case histories
Special categories of data included race, ethnic origin, politics, religion, trade union membership, genetics, biometrics (where used for ID purposes), health and sexual orientation.
We may hold special category data for the following purposes:
Provision of direct healthcare
Data Protection Principles
There are six data protection principles that are core to the UK General Data Protection Regulation. We will make every possible effort to comply with these principles at all times in our information-handling practices. The principles are:
1) Lawful, fair and transparent - data collection must be fair, for a legal purpose and we must be open and transparent as to how the data will be used.
2) Limited for its purpose - data can only be collected for a specific purpose.
3) Data minimisation - any data collected must be necessary and not excessive for its purpose.
4) Accurate - the data we hold must be accurate and kept up to date.
5) Retention - we cannot store data longer than necessary.
6) Integrity and confidentiality - the data we hold must be kept safe and secure.
Key risks
The main risks are in two key areas:
information about individuals getting into the wrong hands, through poor security or inappropriate disclosure of information
individuals being harmed through data being inaccurate or insufficient
Responsibilities
Charlotte Hales is the data controller for all personal data held by us and is responsible for:
analysing and documenting the type of personal data we hold
checking procedures to ensure they cover all the rights of the individual
identifying the lawful basis for processing data
ensuring consent procedures are lawful
implementing and reviewing procedures to detect, report and investigate personal data breaches
storing data in safe and secure ways
assessing the risk that could be posed to individual rights and freedoms should data be compromised
Data Recording, Security and Storage
Data accuracy and relevance
We will ensure that any personal data we process is accurate, adequate, relevant and not excessive, given the purpose for which it was obtained. We will not process personal data obtained for one purpose for any unconnected purpose unless the individual concerned has agreed to this or would otherwise reasonably expect this.
Data security
We will keep personal data secure against loss or misuse. Where other organisations process personal data as a service on our behalf, we will establish what, if any, additional specific data security arrangements need to be implemented in contracts with those third-party organisations.
Storing data securely
in cases when data is stored on printed paper, it will be kept in a secure place where unauthorised personnel cannot access it
printed data will be shredded when it is no longer needed
data stored on a computer will be protected by strong passwords that are changed regularly. A password manager will be used to create and store passwords.
data stored on CDs or memory sticks will be encrypted or password protected and locked away securely when they are not being used
cloud services used to store personal data will be assessed for compliance with UK and EU GDPR principles. An authenticator app will be used to access cloud data.
servers containing personal data must be kept in a secure location, away from general office space
data will be regularly backed up.
all servers containing sensitive data must be protected by security software
all possible technical measures will be put in place to keep data secure
Data retention
We will retain personal data for no longer than is necessary. This shall be in accordance with the guidelines of our professional association, BANT.
Accountability and Transparency
We will ensure accountability and transparency in all our use of personal data. We will keep written up-to-date records of all the data processing activities that we do and ensure that they comply with each of the UK and EU GDPR principles.
We will regularly review our data processing activities and implement measures to ensure privacy by design including data minimisation, pseudonymisation, transparency and continuously improving security and enhanced privacy procedures.
Consent
We will ensure that consents are specific, informed and plain English such that individuals clearly understand why their information will be collected, who it will be shared with, and the possible consequences of them agreeing or refusing the proposed use of the data. Consents will be granular to provide choice as to which data will be collected and for what purpose. We will seek explicit consent wherever possible.
We will maintain an audit trail of consent by documenting details of consent received including who consented, when, how, what, if and when they withdraw consent. For online consent, we may use a cryptographic hash function to support data integrity. Alternatively, we will maintain the consents information in a spreadsheet with links to the consent forms.
We will regularly review consents and seek to refresh them regularly or if anything changes.
Direct Marketing
We will comply with both data protection law and Privacy and Electronic Communication Regulations 2003 (PECR) when sending electronic marketing messages. PECR restricts the circumstances in which we can market people and other organisations by phone, text, email or other electronic means.
We will seek explicit consent for direct marketing. We will provide a simple way to opt out of marketing messages and be able to respond to any complaints.
Subject Access Requests
What is a subject access request?
An individual has the right to receive confirmation that their data is being processed, access to their personal data and supplementary information which means the information which should be provided in a privacy notice.
How to deal with subject access requests
We will provide an individual with a copy of the information requested, free of charge. This will occur within one month of receipt. We endeavour to provide data subjects access to their information in commonly used electronic formats (as described in section 7.3).
If complying with the request is complex or numerous, the deadline can be extended by two months, but the individual will be informed within one month.
We can refuse to respond to certain requests, and can, in circumstances of the request being manifestly unfounded or excessive, charge a fee. If the request is for a large quantity of data, we can request the individual specify the information they are requesting.
Once a subject access request has been made, we will not change or amend any of the data that has been requested. Doing so is a criminal offence.
Data portability requests
We will provide the data requested in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format. This would normally be a PDF file, although other formats are acceptable. We must provide this data either to the individual who has requested it, or to the data controller they have requested it be sent to within one month.
Transferring data internationally
Data may be processed outside of the UK.
Our website is hosted in Europe via Squarespace. We may also use outsourced services in countries outside the UK from time to time in other aspects of our business. Accordingly, data obtained within the UK or any other country could be processed outside the UK. We use the following safeguards with respect to data transferred outside the UK:
we comply with a code of conduct approved by a supervisory authority
Third Parties
Using third party controllers and processors
As a data controller and/or data processor, we will have written contracts in place with any third-party data controllers (and/or) data processors that we use. The contract will contain specific clauses which set out our and their liabilities, obligations and responsibilities.
As a data controller, we will only appoint processors who can provide sufficient guarantees under UK and EU GDPR and that the rights of data subjects will be respected and protected.
As a data processor, we will only act on the documented instructions of a controller. We acknowledge our responsibilities as a data processor under UK and EU GDPR and we will protect and respect the rights of data subjects.
Contracts
Our contracts will comply with the standards set out by the ICO and, where possible, follow standard contractual clauses. Our contracts with data controllers (and/or) data processors will set out the subject matter and duration of the processing, the nature and stated purpose of the processing activities, the types of personal data and categories of data subject, and the obligations and rights of the controller.
Reporting breaches
Any breach of this policy or of data protection laws will be reported as soon as practically possible. This means as soon as we become aware of a breach.
We have a legal obligation to report any data breaches to UK Supervisory authority which is the Information Commissioners Officer, within 72 hours.
If you have a complaint regarding the use of your personal data then please contact us by writing to the Data Controller at Charlotte Hales, Calle Octavio López 8, 2-1, Torre del Mar (Málaga) 29740, Spain, or email charlotte@charlottehales.com and we will do our best to help you.
If your complaint is not resolved to your satisfaction and you wish to make a formal complaint to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), you can contact them on 01625 545745 or 0303 1231113 or via their website (ico.org.uk). If you are based in the EU, you have the right to lodge a complaint with your local data protection authority, including the Agencia Española de Protección de Datos (aepd.es).