Privacy Policy

This policy explains how Lee Jaffe Registered Dietician (“we”, “us”, “the practice”) collects, uses, shares and protects your personal information when you visit dietician.co.za, complete a form, book or attend a consultation, or use our app. We are committed to handling your information responsibly and in accordance with the Protection of Personal Information Act, 2013 (POPIA).

1. Who we are

For the purposes of POPIA, the Responsible Party is:

2. Information we collect

Depending on how you interact with us, we may collect:

• Contact details — your name, email address and phone number.
• Enquiry & booking details — the service you’re interested in, your preferred format (in-person or online), and anything you tell us in a message or booking.
• Assessment answers — the responses you give in our free 2-minute assessment quiz (for example your goals and whether you’re using a GLP-1 medication).
• Health information — where you become a client, the clinical and dietary information needed to provide your care (see section 5). This is “special personal information” under POPIA and is treated with extra care.
• Technical information — basic data your browser sends (such as your approximate location, device and pages viewed) and analytics, as described in section 11.

3. How we collect it

• Directly from you when you complete the contact, booking, assessment or guide forms on this site.
• When you book a call or consultation (our scheduling is handled by Calendly).
• During consultations and through your use of our client app for daily accountability.
• Automatically through cookies and analytics when you browse the site.

4. Why we use it (purpose & lawful basis)

We process your personal information to:

• respond to your enquiry and arrange consultations — on the basis of your request and our consultation agreement with you;
• provide dietetic assessment, eating plans and ongoing care — on the basis of your consent and the provision of professional healthcare;
• send you the information or guide you asked for, and contact you about your result or booking — on the basis of your consent;
• issue invoices and support medical-aid claims where you ask us to;
• maintain accurate clinical records as required of registered healthcare professionals; and
• improve and secure our website — on the basis of our legitimate interest in running the practice.

You can withdraw your consent at any time (see section 10). Withdrawing consent won’t affect processing that already took place, and we may still need to keep certain records where the law requires it.

5. Health information (special personal information)

As a registered dietitian, providing your care involves processing information about your health, diet and medical history. POPIA classes this as special personal information. We only process it where you have given consent, or where it is necessary for the provision of healthcare by a health professional bound by a duty of confidentiality. We do not use your health information for marketing, and we never sell it.

6. Who we share it with

We do not sell your personal information. We share it only with trusted service providers (“Operators”) who help us run the practice, and only as far as needed:

• Netlify — website hosting and secure handling of form submissions.
• Google (Google Workspace) — our email, through which enquiries and bookings reach us.
• Calendly — appointment scheduling.
• Our client app provider — the platform that powers your daily accountability and check-ins.
• Analytics providers (such as Google Analytics) — aggregated, non-identifying website usage, as described in section 11.
• Your medical aid — only where you ask us to provide an invoice or information to support a claim.

We may also disclose information if required by law, or to protect the rights, safety or property of you, us or others.

7. International transfers

Some of our service providers (for example our hosting and email providers) store data on servers outside South Africa. Where your information is transferred across borders, we take reasonable steps to ensure it is protected by a comparable level of safeguards, as POPIA requires.

8. How we protect it

We take appropriate, reasonable technical and organisational measures to safeguard your information against loss, unauthorised access and misuse — including encrypted (HTTPS) connections, reputable service providers, access controls and professional confidentiality. No method of transmission or storage is completely secure, but we work to protect your information and to act quickly if a security compromise occurs.

9. How long we keep it

• Clinical and consultation records are kept for the period required of healthcare practitioners (in line with HPCSA guidance, generally at least six years from your last consultation, and longer for minors).
• Enquiry, booking and marketing data is kept only as long as needed for the purpose it was collected, or until you ask us to delete it or withdraw consent.

When information is no longer needed and we’re not legally required to keep it, we securely delete or de-identify it.

10. Your rights

Under POPIA you have the right to:

• ask what personal information we hold about you, and request a copy;
• ask us to correct or update information that is inaccurate or incomplete;
• ask us to delete information, where we’re not required to keep it;
• object to processing, or withdraw consent you previously gave;
• not be subject to direct marketing you haven’t agreed to; and
• lodge a complaint with the Information Regulator (see section 14).

To exercise any of these rights, email lee@dietician.co.za. We may need to verify your identity before acting on your request.

11. Cookies & analytics

Our site uses a small amount of local storage to make features work (for example remembering your progress through the assessment quiz). We also use website analytics (such as Google Analytics) to understand, in aggregate, how the site is used so we can improve it. You can control or clear cookies through your browser settings; doing so may affect some site features.

12. Children

Where we work with children, we do so through and with the consent of a parent or legal guardian. We do not knowingly collect a child’s personal information online without that consent.

13. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy from time to time. When we do, we’ll change the “last updated” date at the top of this page, and significant changes will be highlighted here.

14. Questions & complaints

If you have any question about your privacy or this policy, please get in touch or email lee@dietician.co.za — we’d rather hear from you first and put things right.

You also have the right to complain to the regulator: