Legal
Privacy Policy
Last updated: June 3, 2026
1. Who we are
Dental Tourism Watch ("we", "us", "the Site") operates dentaltourismwatch.org as an independent public-interest database of dental tourism patient outcomes. This policy explains what personal data we collect, how we use it, and your rights in relation to it.
2. Data we collect
Account data
If you create an account, we collect your name and email address. We use these to authenticate you, send transactional emails (submission confirmation, case status updates), and allow you to manage your submissions. We do not sell or share this data with third parties for marketing purposes.
Submitted case data
Case reports contain information you provide about a dental treatment experience. This may constitute health data under GDPR and equivalent legislation (Article 9 special category data). We process it under a legitimate interest / public-interest journalism basis — to compile a public record of dental tourism outcomes. Where you opt to submit anonymously, we do not link your submission to your account.
We do not publish your account email. Display names on cases are shown only if you provide one and do not opt for anonymous submission.
Usage data
We use Google Analytics to collect anonymised page view and session data. Google Analytics places cookies on your device. IP addresses are anonymised before storage. We use this data to understand how the Site is used and which content is most useful. See Google's privacy policy for how Google handles this data.
Cookies
We set the following cookies:
| Cookie | Purpose | Duration |
|---|---|---|
dtw_session | Session authentication | Session |
XSRF-TOKEN | CSRF protection | Session |
remember_web_* | Remember me (optional) | 30 days |
_ga, _gid | Google Analytics | Up to 2 years |
You can disable non-essential cookies via your browser settings. Disabling cookies will not prevent you from using the Site but may affect analytics.
3. How we use your data
- To authenticate your account and maintain your session
- To send you transactional emails relating to your submissions
- To publish anonymised case reports in the public interest
- To compute aggregate statistics for country and treatment safety records
- To understand how the Site is used and improve it
We do not use your data for automated profiling or to make decisions about you.
4. Data retention
Account data is retained while your account is active. Published case data is retained indefinitely as part of the public record; if you request deletion of an anonymous case, we will assess whether removal would undermine the integrity of published aggregate statistics before acting. Unpublished (rejected or pending) submissions are deleted after 90 days.
5. Your rights
Under GDPR and equivalent legislation, you have the right to:
- Access the personal data we hold about you
- Rectify inaccurate data
- Erasure ("right to be forgotten") — subject to our legitimate interest in maintaining the public record
- Restrict processing in certain circumstances
- Data portability — receive your data in a structured, machine-readable format
- Object to processing based on legitimate interests
To exercise any of these rights, contact us at [email protected]. We will respond within 30 days.
You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the supervisory authority in your jurisdiction (for example, the ICO in the UK or your national DPA in the EU).
6. Data security
We use industry-standard measures to protect personal data: HTTPS for all connections, encrypted passwords (bcrypt), and access controls on our database. We do not store payment card data (we do not process payments).
7. Third parties
We share data with the following third-party processors:
- Google Analytics — usage analytics (anonymised)
- Resend — transactional email delivery
- Our hosting provider — server infrastructure; data is not processed beyond hosting
We do not sell personal data to any third party.
8. Children
The Site is not directed at children under 16. We do not knowingly collect personal data from children. If you believe a child has submitted data, contact us and we will delete it promptly.
9. Changes to this policy
We may update this policy. Material changes will be noted with a revised "last updated" date. Continued use of the Site after changes constitutes acceptance.