1 - Purpose 

3 - Personal data collected 

We define personal data as any information about an identified or identifiable living individual, excluding anonymous or non-personal information.   

To operate this platform, we collect and store different types of personal data regarding the site’s users, therapy practitioners, and employees. The personal data collected includes: name, identity documents, gender, date of birth, address, e-mail, phone number, nationality, IP address, information about the browser and operating system used to access the platform, links and buttons clicked during the platform using, session data, medical information collected by the practitioners and any other information necessary for Therapy Panda business purposes.

Protecting all this information is important for us. Other than in the ways detailed in this Privacy Policy, we will never use or disclose any information unless you have requested or authorised us to do so.

4 - Cookie Policy

Therapy Panda utilises cookies to offer the best service for you. Cookies are pieces of data from a website or platform that are stored within a web browser, smartphone or any other device with internet access. They can be retrieved at a later time after the user has returned to our page, and remember your setting choices for using the website.  

Therapy Panda uses three different types of cookies, which are:

You can always change your cookies’ settings on the website, deactivating the preferences and statistics cookies. It is important to be aware however that switching them off may affect the site’s functions and performance. 

5 - Therapy Panda’s Liability

It is the company’s responsibility to protect and store your data in a safe place. Although, it is not Therapy Panda’s responsibility to ensure the accuracy of the information which the users and practitioners provide us when using the platform. Furthermore, Therapy Panda is not responsible for keeping your information updated, when it is the users’ and practitioners’ liability for the accuracy of the provided information. 

6 - Therapy Practitioner’s Liability

Throughout this site and in this privacy policy, we define therapists, therapy practitioners and practitioners synonymously as any mental health specialist who hosts a profile on the platform; this includes but is not limited to therapists, counsellors, psychologists, psychiatrists, and community listeners.  

All medical registers, including the medical information you may share with a practitioner, are stored by the practitioner or practitioners you have had sessions with. Every practitioner has the legal obligation to store and use this data according to current legislation and industry Code of Ethics. Our platform also provides a system where the practitioners can make notes and store documents on their dashboard, the use of this system is optional and, if used, the information will be stored and encrypted within the platform. 

7 - Data collection purpose 

Respecting the principle of the purpose limitation provided by the UK GDPR, all personal data is collected for specified, explicit, and legitimate purposes. 

These purposes are: 

a) to identify and verify the user on our platform;

b) to provide the services we offer, completing the activities you requested, such as registering on the platform;

c) to fulfil the obligations of this Privacy Policy and Terms and Conditions; 

d) to answer the requests and doubts that the users and practitioners may have and ) provide you with support; 

e) to keep your personal information updated;

f) to contact you when necessary; 

g) for billing and transaction processing purposes; 

h) to match users with practitioners and facilitate the practitioner’s services; 

i) to supervise, administer, and monitor the platform, making sure we can measure and improve the quality and effectiveness of our services; 

j) to assure Therapy Panda's legal rights and obligations; 

k) to attend to any requirement from legal, governmental, or political authority; 

l) to defend Therapy Panda and Therapy Panda's rights, including when requested in court; 

m) to improve the use and browsing experience of our platform, which can include the data sharing with our business partners; 

n) to carry out statistics, studies, research, and surveys relevant to our activities, to maintain the relationship with our users and practitioners; 

o) to promote our services and products, and inform you about our news, features, content, and other relevant events. (This content will only be sent to you if you choose to receive it).

The use, access, and sharing of any personal data will be done within the limitations and legitimate purposes of our business and to this Privacy Policy.

8 - Data sharing

For the best operation of our platform, Therapy Panda may share your personal information with our contractors, members, and service providers. For example, Amazon Web Service (AWS) is used for cloud storage and, in order for the platform to operate, data must be sent to the company for data hosting. Similarly, the Vectera system is used to facilitate encrypted audio and video meetings. In all cases, we make sure that all the provider companies have a high level of data security and follow current legislation.

Your personal information may be also disclosed in other situations, such as:

a) when required by legal, governmental, or political authority where we will not disclose more personal information than necessary; 

b) in cases to comply with valid legal processes such as search warrants, subpoenas, or court orders;

c) to protect the rights and property of Therapy Panda, including in judicial and administrative proceedings;

d) during emergency and atypical situations to protect the safety of a person or groups;

e) to providers of customer support, communications and marketing services.

9 - Data security

To keep your personal data safe, we use Amazon Web Services (AWS) to store all the collected information, knowing they follow the legislation and keep their security policy updated. 

We also use encryption technology throughout the platform, and provide a two-factor authentication system for the practitioner’s access. We have implemented Privacy by Design in every step of the platform’s development and through its continued operation.

We know that every online service platform is not 100% risk-free, but we maintain a constant review and implementation of safeguards, that are designed to protect your personal data from any leak, unauthorised access, use, modification, or disclosure. 

Valuing the principle of transparency, we will contact all users and practitioners that could have been or have been affected by any suspicious activity caused by a data breach. 

10 - Individuals rights and choices (GDPR UK)

Our Privacy Policy was written under the UK GDPR law, and, therefore, we assure you the following rights: 

Right to object

You have the right to object to your personal information being processed for direct marketing. Also, depending on the situation, you might object to your personal data being continually processed, in case the company relies upon consent as the legal basis for processing it. 

When the legal basis for the processing is for legitimate interests, you also have the right to object, but you must give us specific reasons for that. In this case, we will consider the reasons you sent to analyse if it is possible to stop the data processing. If, after this analysis, we consider that there are compelling legitimate grounds to continue processing your personal data, we may maintain it, but we will send you the reasons for this decision. 

It is important to understand that these are not always absolute rights and must be considered in the wider scope of the legislation.

11 - Opting-Out of Marketing Communication

At any time, you can opt out of receiving our marketing emails. At the end of every marketing email we send, there is an unsubscribe link that you can use to opt out. It is also possible to opt out by visiting the Notifications section of your dashboard or by emailing our team at support@therapypanda.com 

11 - Retention and Deletion

Therapy Panda stores your personal data for the same legitimate business purposes under which the data was originally collected. We will retain your data only for as long as we believe is necessary to accomplish these purposes.

If you have stopped having frequent therapy sessions with a particular therapy practitioner, the practitioner you have had sessions with can change the status of your account to ‘Inactive’ within their dashboard. This provides an additional safeguard to your data from a breach on the practitioner’s account as all records for ‘Inactive’ clients are protected through a 2-Factor Authentication system. This action thus provides an additional layer of protection to your data whilst also allowing you to work with the same practitioner in the future, if you wished to have future sessions with them.

After it is deemed apparent that data storage is no longer required, we will proceed with either deleting or anonymising your data so that it cannot be associated with or be tracked back to you. 

12 - International data transfers

Therapy Panda is based in the United Kingdom, whereby that’s where we control and operate the personal data collected. It means the personal information you provide us by using the platform, will be transferred to the United Kingdom, where it will be stored and processed according to British Legislation and according to this Privacy Policy. All therapy practitioners which have a profile listed on the platform are also obliged to work with the framework of the current legislation and protect the privacy and personal data of the clients they work with on the platform.   

13 - Changes to the Privacy Policy

At any time, when necessary, our team may update this Privacy Policy to adapt it to the legislation or our practices. Any change will always respect the Laws and the users’ and practitioners’ rights. We recommend that you visit and review this Policy’s page periodically, to keep updated with our latest version. To make it easier, we will always display the date of the last revision at the end of this page. 

However, we guarantee that we will never use the data submitted in our current policy in a new way without first notifying you, and giving you the option to opt out. After being notified, if you continue using your platform, your use of the site will be considered as an acceptance of the new version of this Privacy Policy.    

14 - Contacting Therapy Panda

If you have any questions or concerns about this Privacy Policy, or if you want to request one of your rights above mentioned, please contact us by sending an e-mail to support@therapypanda.com or by clicking on the "Support" link at the bottom of any page in our site.