Privacy Policy

1. Information We Collect

We only collect personal information that is reasonably necessary to process your treatment appointments, check scheduling availability, verify clinic service area eligibility, and answer your inquiries:

• Personal Identification & Contact Data: Your full name, email address, and telephone number submitted during booking or inquiries.
• Service Area Verification Data: Your Canadian postal code, collected during the appointment booking process to verify whether your requested appointment is located within our Vancouver clinic's local service radius (~20 km).
• Treatment Selection & Schedule Preferences: The aesthetic procedure of interest (including Microneedling, Chemical Peels, IPL Treatments, Laser Hair Removal, Hydrafacial, High-Frequency Therapy, Microdermabrasion, Face Sculpt, Dermaplaning, or LED Light Therapy), along with your preferred appointment date and time slot.
• Clinical Notes & Skin Concerns: Information you voluntarily provide regarding your skin type, treatment goals, or aesthetic history in our contact forms or booking notes.
• Payment Confirmation Records: Confirmation and transaction reference numbers for your $25 consultation booking deposit processed securely through Stripe. We do not collect, process, or store full credit card numbers on our servers.
• Technical Information: Certain technical information, such as IP address, browser type, device information, or server logs, may be processed automatically for website security, reliability, and fraud prevention.

2. How We Use Your Information

Your personal information is used strictly to provide, manage, and facilitate our clinic appointments and services:

• Appointment Coordination: Scheduling, confirming, and managing your aesthetic consultation and treatment appointments.
• Calendar Availability Checks: Checking real-time calendar availability via Google Calendar to prevent scheduling conflicts and double bookings.
• Deposit Processing: Verifying and processing the $25 appointment deposit securely via Stripe.
• Booking Communication: Communicating with you regarding appointment confirmations and responding directly to inquiries submitted through our contact form.
• Local Eligibility Checks: Verifying that appointment requests fall within our clinic's ~20 km Vancouver service boundary.
• Recordkeeping & Administrative Operations: Maintaining necessary scheduling, accounting, and administrative records as required for clinic operations and applicable legal standards.

3. Appointment Booking & Patient Confidentiality

Our website booking engine coordinates directly with Google Calendar to display open, available time slots in real time.

Patient Confidentiality: Existing calendar entries are used strictly to identify busy versus open slots. At no time are the names, treatment types, contact details, or other private information of existing clients visible or accessible to other visitors. Patient privacy is protected across all interactions.

To ensure adequate clinical preparation, all online bookings must be reserved at least one day in advance (starting from the following day onward).

4. Secure Payment Processing (Stripe)

To reserve your treatment time, a $25 deposit is collected at the time of booking. All payment transactions are handled through Stripe, an internationally certified, PCI-DSS Level 1 compliant payment processor.

When entering payment information, you interact directly with Stripe's secure hosted checkout. Dermacare Clinic never collects, sees, or stores your full credit card number, expiration date, or CVV security code on our website or servers.

Payment data is governed directly by Stripe's privacy and security terms. For more information, please review Stripe's Privacy Policy on their official website.

5. Local Service Area Verification (Postal Code)

Dermacare Clinic provides personalised in-person aesthetic care from our Vancouver atelier at 920 W King Edward Ave.

Our booking portal checks your Canadian postal code to verify whether the provided postal code falls within our intended local service area (approximately 20 km of our clinic).

We do not use telephone area codes to determine geographic eligibility, ensuring that clients with out-of-province phone numbers who reside locally in the Greater Vancouver area can book without restriction.

6. Third-Party Service Providers

We partner with select third-party service providers solely to maintain our website and clinical booking infrastructure:

• Stripe: Payment gateway for processing appointment deposits securely.
• Google Calendar / Google Workspace: Real-time scheduling, availability checks, and appointment calendar management.
• Web3Forms: Encrypted transmission of contact form inquiries directly to our clinic email.
• Vercel: Secure cloud hosting and web infrastructure.

These providers may process personal information as necessary to provide the services described above and are subject to their own applicable privacy and security practices. Dermacare Clinic does not sell or rent personal information to third parties.

7. Security & Data Retention

We use reasonable technical and organizational safeguards appropriate to the nature of the information we handle to protect personal information against unauthorized access, loss, alteration, or misuse.

Website communications and form submissions are protected using HTTPS/SSL/TLS encryption. Access to booking schedules and client inquiries is restricted strictly to authorized Dermacare Clinic personnel.

We retain personal information only for as long as reasonably necessary to fulfill the purposes for which it was collected, provide ongoing services, maintain administrative and business records, and satisfy legal obligations under applicable law.

8. Your Privacy Rights

Under British Columbia's Personal Information Protection Act (PIPA)—and Canadian federal privacy legislation (PIPEDA) where applicable—you have rights regarding the personal information we hold about you:

• Access: You have the right to request access to the personal information we hold regarding your bookings and profile.
• Correction: You have the right to request updates or corrections to inaccurate, incomplete, or outdated information.
• Inquiries & Concerns: You may inquire about our data handling policies or raise concerns regarding your personal information at any time.