Privacy Policy

Who we are and what this policy covers

The EyeSite Doctors of Optometry is an optometry clinic at 301 E Columbia St Suite 108, New Westminster, BC V3L 3W5. This policy explains how we handle personal information about our patients, people who contact us, and visitors to our website.

As a private health care practice in British Columbia, we follow the Personal Information Protection Act (PIPA). Personal information means information about an identifiable person, such as your name, contact details, health history or insurance details. Our optometrists also follow the confidentiality rules of their regulatory college, the College of Health and Care Professionals of BC.

What we collect

• When you request an appointment or contact us online: your name, email address and phone number, and what you choose to tell us in the form. The appointment request form also asks whether you have been to The EyeSite before, how you heard about us, how many people need an appointment, and for any additional information.
• When you call or email us: your contact details and what you tell us.
• When you are our patient: the information we need to examine your eyes, provide your eyewear and bill for your care, such as your health history, exam results and prescriptions, your B.C. Personal Health Number (from your BC Services Card) and, if you would like us to bill your plan directly, your extended health insurance details.
• When you use our website: information about your visit collected by cookies and similar tools (see Cookies, analytics and advertising).

How we use it

• to answer your questions and book your appointments
• to provide eye care, glasses and contact lenses
• to bill MSP, your insurance plan or another coverage program for you
• to keep the clinical records that our regulatory college and the law require
• to understand how our website is used and whether our advertising works
• to meet our other legal obligations.

Your consent

We collect, use and share personal information with your consent, or where PIPA allows or requires us to do so without it. When you request an appointment, contact us or come in for a visit, you agree to us using your information for that purpose. We will ask you before we use it for a new purpose.

You can withdraw your consent at any time by telling us, unless a legal obligation prevents it. We will explain what this means for your care or billing.

Who we share it with

We do not sell or rent personal information. We share it only when needed:

• with MSP, your insurance plan or another coverage program when we bill on your behalf
• with other health care providers, such as an ophthalmologist, when you need a referral or shared care, with your consent
• with companies that help us run the clinic and this website, such as our website host, the service that delivers website form messages to our inbox, our email provider, and Google (analytics and advertising)
• when the law requires or allows it.

These companies may use your information only to provide their service to us. Some of them, including Google, may store or process information outside Canada, where it can be subject to the laws of other countries.

Cookies, analytics and advertising

Our website uses Google Tag Manager to load Google Analytics and Google Ads. These tools use cookies and similar technologies to collect information such as the pages you visit, how you found our site, your device and browser, and your approximate location (worked out from your IP address). We use it to see how the site is used and whether our ads lead to appointment requests and calls.

When you send one of our forms, Google Ads may receive a scrambled (hashed) copy of the contact details you entered, such as your email address, to match your request to an ad you clicked. We do not put the contents of your message or any health information into our analytics.

The map on our website loads from Google Maps only when you choose “Show map”. Google then receives your IP address and may set its own cookies. Our Facebook and Instagram links take you to those websites, where their own privacy policies apply.

Your choices: you can block or delete cookies in your browser settings, turn off personalized ads in your Google ad settings, or install Google’s Google Analytics opt-out browser add-on. Our website still works if you do. Google explains how it uses this information in its privacy policy.

Email, forms and your health information

Email and website forms are not a secure way to send health information. Please do not submit any Protected Health Information (PHI) through our website forms, and do not send personal health information by email. If you need to tell us about a health concern before your visit, call us at (604) 553-3900.

How long we keep it

We keep personal information only as long as we need it for the reason we collected it, or as long as the law or our regulatory college requires. If we use your information to make a decision that directly affects you, we keep it for at least one year afterwards, as PIPA requires.

• Patient records: kept for the period our regulatory college and the law require.
• Website form messages: kept only as long as we need them to reply to you and book your visit.
• Website analytics: kept according to the data-retention setting of our Google Analytics account.

When we no longer need information, we destroy it securely or remove anything that identifies you.

How we protect it

As PIPA requires, we make reasonable security arrangements to protect personal information from unauthorized access, collection, use, disclosure, copying, changes or disposal. Our website uses an encrypted (HTTPS) connection.

Seeing and correcting your information

You can ask for a copy of the personal information we hold about you, how it has been used, and who it has been shared with. You can also ask us to correct information you believe is wrong or incomplete.

Please send your request in writing to our Privacy Officer (contact details below). We may need to confirm your identity first. We will reply within 30 business days, or tell you if we need more time and why, as PIPA allows. If a fee applies to copying your records, we will tell you the amount before we start. In a few cases PIPA allows or requires us to hold back some information, for example when it would reveal personal information about someone else; if so, we will tell you why.

Changes to this policy

We may update this policy from time to time. The date at the top of this page shows when it last changed.