Privacy Policy

Dr. Yimeng Zhang Privacy Policy

At Dr. Yimeng Zhang, we are committed to providing our patients with exceptional service. However, as this service involves the collection, use and disclosure of some personal information about our patients, protecting their personal information is one of our highest priorities.

While we always respect our patients’ privacy and safeguard their personal information, we have strengthened our commitment to protecting personal information because of Ontario’s Personal Information Protection Act (PIPA). PIPA, enacted on January 1, 2004, sets out the ground rules for how businesses collect, use and disclose personal information.

We will inform our patients of why and how we collect, use and disclose their personal information, and obtain their consent where required.

This Personal Information Protection Policy, in compliance with PIPA, outlines the principles and practices we will follow in protecting patients’ personal information. Our privacy commitment includes ensuring the accuracy, confidentiality, and security of our patient’s personal information and allowing our patients to request access to and correct their personal information.

COLLECTING PERSONAL INFORMATION

We will only collect patient’s information that is necessary to fulfill the following purposes:

To verify identity.
To verify creditworthiness.
To identify patient preferences.
To understand the [financial, banking, insurance] needs of our patients.
To open and manage an account.
To deliver requested products and services.
To provide medical, dental, and counselling services.
To ensure a high standard of service to our patients.

To comply with legal and regulatory requirements to the Royal College of Dental Surgeons of Ontario when required, according to the provisions of the Regulated Health Professions Act.

We collect and store any information you enter on our website or our Forms. This information includes, but is not limited to:

Information that you provide to us when you use our Contact Form.
Information that you provide to us when you use our Appointment Request Form.
Information that you provide to us when you use our New Patient Form.
Additional information that you may provide to us through social media sites or third-party Services.
Information about your location and the location of your device, including your device’s unique identifier information, if you have enabled this service on your mobile device.

We may receive or collect additional information about you from third parties and add this to our account information. This information includes, but is not limited to: demographic data, navigation data, additional contact data and additional data about you from other sources, such as public authorities, to the extent the law permits.

CONSENT

We will obtain patients’ consent to collect, use or disclose personal information (except where, as noted below, we are authorized to do so without consent).

Consent can be provided orally, in writing, electronically, through an authorized representative] or it can be implied where the purpose for collecting, using or disclosing the personal information would be considered obvious, and the patients voluntarily provide personal information for that purpose.

Subject to certain exceptions (e.g., the personal information is necessary to provide the service or product, or the withdrawal of consent would frustrate the performance of a legal obligation). Patients can withhold or withdraw their consent for Dr. Yimeng Zhang to use their personal information in certain ways. A patient’s decision to withhold or withdraw their consent to certain uses of personal information may restrict our ability to provide a service or product. If so, we will explain the situation to assist the patients in making the decision.

We may collect, use or disclose personal information without the patient’s knowledge or consent in the following limited circumstances:

When the collection, use or disclosure of personal information is permitted or required by law.
In an emergency that threatens an individual’s life, health, or personal security.
When the personal information is available from a public source.
When we require legal advice from a lawyer.
For the purposes of collecting a debt.
To protect ourselves from fraud.
To investigate an anticipated breach of an agreement or a contravention of the law.

USING AND DISCLOSING PERSONAL INFORMATION

We will only use or disclose patient’s personal information where necessary to fulfill the purposes identified at the time of collection, such as:

To conduct client, customer, and member surveys to enhance the provision of our services.
To contact our patients directly about products and services that may be of interest.
We will not use or disclose a patient’s personal information for any additional purpose unless we obtain consent to do so. Nor will we sell patients’ lists or personal information to other parties.

RETAINING PERSONAL INFORMATION

If we use patients’ personal information to decide that directly affects the patients, we will retain that personal information for at least one year so that the patients have a reasonable opportunity to request access to it.

We will only retain the patient’s personal information if necessary to fulfill the identified purposes or a legal or business purpose.

ENSURING ACCURACY OF PERSONAL INFORMATION

We will make reasonable efforts to ensure that patient’s personal information is accurate and complete where it may be used to decide about the patients or disclosed to another organization.

Patients may request a correction to their personal information to ensure its accuracy and completeness. A request to correct personal information must be made in writing and provide sufficient detail to identify the personal information and the correction being sought.

If the personal information is demonstrated to be inaccurate or incomplete, we will correct the information as required and send the updated information to any organization to which we disclosed the personal information in the previous year. We will note the patient’s correction request in the file if the correction is not made.

SECURING PERSONAL INFORMATION

We are committed to ensuring the security of a patient’s personal information to protect it from unauthorized access, collection, use, disclosure, copying, modification, disposal, or similar risks.

We will use appropriate security measures when destroying a patient’s personal information, such as shredding documents and deleting electronically stored information.

We will continually review and update our security policies and controls as technology changes to ensure ongoing personal information security.