Website privacy and cookie notice
Last updated 5 October 2026.
This notice explains what happens to your information when you use citydentalcare.co.uk, including the enquiry pages our adverts lead to (see enquiries from our advertising campaigns). It covers the website, the details you send us through those pages, and messages you send the practice on WhatsApp. Your dental records and the information you give us as a patient are covered by our separate patient privacy notice, available at the practice; online booking takes place on our booking provider's secure portal under its own privacy policy.
Who we are
The website is operated by City Dental Care, 9 Earl Grey Street, Edinburgh, EH3 9BN. We are the data controller for the information described here and are registered with the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO registration number ZB901667). For anything about your data, contact the practice on info@citydentalcare.co.uk or 0131 228 2442.
What the website collects, and why
| What | Why | Legal basis | Kept for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Enquiry and referral forms — your name, contact details and the message you send (forms are provided by Jotform) | To reply to you and deal with your enquiry or referral | Our legitimate interest in responding to enquiries; for referrals, the steps needed to provide care | Only as long as needed to deal with the enquiry. If you become a patient, relevant details move to your patient record under the patient privacy notice |
| Analytics — pages visited, device and browser type, approximate location, how pages are used (Google Analytics, Microsoft Clarity) | To understand how the site is used and improve it | Your consent (the cookie banner). Nothing is set until you accept | Google Analytics: per Google's retention settings, up to 14 months. Clarity: recordings 30 days, aggregated data up to 13 months |
| How you found us — a channel label such as “google-profile” or “instagram” (the cdc_source cookie) | To know which channels lead to bookings, so we spend on what works | Your consent (the cookie banner) | 90 days on your device; the label is recorded against a booking attempt with a time stamp only |
| Google advert clicks — the click identifier from an advert you clicked (the cdc_gclid cookie), and the date and time of a booking or registration that followed | To tell Google Ads which adverts actually led to an appointment, so we stop paying for the ones that do not. We send Google the click identifier and the time — never your name, contact details, or anything about your treatment | Your consent (the cookie banner). Nothing is set or sent until you accept | 90 days on your device. The click identifier and time stamp are held on our systems for up to 14 months and then deleted |
| Booking confirmations from our booking provider | To count how many online bookings each channel produces | Our legitimate interest in measuring the website | We record only that a booking was made and when — no name, contact details or appointment details are stored on our website systems |
We do not sell your information. If you are a patient, we may send you news and offers as described under news and offers for patients, and you can stop them at any time. Google and Microsoft process analytics data on our behalf under their own terms; Google Analytics may transfer data outside the UK under safeguards recognised in UK law.
News and offers for patients
If you are a patient of City Dental Care, we may send you news and offers about our dental services by email and text message, using the contact details you gave us when you registered. We do this because we have a legitimate interest in keeping our patients informed about their care and about what the practice offers.
You can stop them at any time, free of charge. Every marketing email has an unsubscribe link, every marketing text tells you how to reply STOP, and you can also tell reception or email info@citydentalcare.co.uk. Once you opt out we record that on your patient record straight away and send you no more marketing. Messages about your own care, such as appointment reminders and check-up recalls, are not marketing and will continue.
Enquiries from our advertising campaigns
Some of our adverts lead to enquiry pages on quote.lc.citydentalcare.co.uk and implant.citydentalcare.co.uk. These pages are hosted for us by our marketing agency, The Clinic Growth Company, which acts as our processor: it may use your details only on our instructions, and we remain the data controller. The forms ask for your contact details, the treatment you're asking about and when you'd like us to contact you. They also ask a few questions about your dental concern (for example, how many teeth are missing) and some practical ones, such as when you'd like to start treatment. We use your answers to respond to your enquiry and to prepare for your consultation; we take more detailed health information directly once we're in touch with you.
| What | Why | Legal basis | Kept for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Your name, email address, phone number, the treatment you're asking about and your preferred contact time | To contact you about your enquiry and discuss your treatment options | Our legitimate interest in responding to your enquiry | Up to 12 months after our last contact with you, then deleted, and sooner if you ask us to delete it. If you ask us not to contact you again, we keep only what we need to make sure we don't. When the agency's work for us ends, the data is returned to us and deleted from its systems. If you become a patient, relevant details move to your patient record under the patient privacy notice |
| Which advert or campaign you came from, and basic technical data such as your IP address and device type | To see which campaigns lead to enquiries, and to keep the pages secure | Our legitimate interest in responding to your enquiry and measuring our advertising | With your enquiry, for the same period |
| Marketing emails or texts, only if you ask to receive them | To send you the offers and treatment information you signed up for | Your consent, which you can withdraw at any time by unsubscribing or contacting us | Until you withdraw consent |
The Clinic Growth Company uses these providers to run the pages and handle enquiries: GoHighLevel / LeadConnector for managing enquiries and follow-up messages, Perspective for the pages and forms, Zapier for passing enquiries from the pages to GoHighLevel / LeadConnector, and Mailgun for email delivery. Perspective stores the data in Germany, which UK law recognises as giving adequate protection. GoHighLevel / LeadConnector and Mailgun are in the United States; transfers to them are covered by the UK–US data bridge, because both are certified under the UK Extension to the EU–US Data Privacy Framework. Zapier, Inc. is also in the United States, and transfers to it are covered by the UK–US data bridge in the same way, because it is certified under the UK Extension too. You can ask us for details. The cookies section below covers our main website only, not the campaign pages.
The campaign pages also use the Meta pixel, a tool from Meta Platforms (the company behind Facebook and Instagram), to measure and improve our advertising. It runs when a page loads, records the pages you visit and the steps you go through on them, and sets cookies in your browser. That information goes to Meta Platforms, and Meta's privacy policy explains how Meta uses it. If you have a Facebook or Instagram account, you can limit how Meta uses your activity on other websites for advertising in the ad preferences in Meta's Accounts Centre. You can also block or delete cookies in your browser's settings.
You can object to how we use your enquiry details, or ask us to delete them, at any time by emailing info@citydentalcare.co.uk.
Messaging us on WhatsApp
Our WhatsApp number is 07352 038861. Messaging us is your choice — you can phone 0131 228 2442 or email us instead, and none of this applies if you do.
Who reads your messages. While the practice is open, reception read and answer WhatsApp by hand on a practice phone, and on any practice computer linked to it. When the practice is closed, an automated assistant usually answers instead. It replies only from information already published on this website, it does not advise on symptoms, and it emails your message to the practice's reception mailbox when it cannot answer you, when you ask for a person, when you raise a complaint or ask about an appointment you already have, and when it judges that someone should read the conversation. That email includes your number and the recent messages, and it stays in the practice's mailbox like any other enquiry. On the first message we receive after opening, reception are also sent a list of the conversations that came in while we were shut, including the first line of any message where you were told someone would reply.
One reply is automatic. Certain wording — swelling, and difficulty breathing or swallowing — makes the number reply straight away at any hour, telling you to call 999 or go to A&E, and tells reception at the same time. It works by recognising words you type, so please do not wait for it and do not read its absence as reassurance: if you are that unwell, call 999 or go to A&E. It can read a caption typed under a photo, but it cannot open the photo itself or listen to a voice note.
What our website stores, and for how long. Our website systems do not store your phone number. They store a scrambled code made from it, which keeps a conversation together without identifying you to us, along with the last two dozen messages in that conversation — ours as well as yours — so the assistant can follow what has already been said. That happens whether or not the assistant replied. The record is deleted seven days after the last message in that conversation. Two copies outlast it: the conversation itself stays in WhatsApp on the practice phone, and anything passed to reception stays in the practice's email.
If you would rather the assistant left you alone. Reply STOP and it will stop replying to you: no answers, no follow-up, nothing. One kind of message still gets through, and only that one — if you write something that sounds like swelling with difficulty breathing or swallowing, you will get the reply telling you to call 999 or go to A&E, and reception are told at the same time. Not more than once every couple of hours, so if you write again straight away you may get nothing back. We would rather send you that and be wrong than leave you without it. It works by recognising words, like the automatic reply above, so please do not wait for it. Reception can still message you by hand.
Where your messages are held. WhatsApp is run by Meta, so your messages are on Meta's systems as well as on the practice phone. For the automated assistant, the data storage region Meta holds for our account is the United States. That was fixed when the number was first set up and cannot be changed for this number.
What not to send us. Please don't send card numbers, bank details, or identity documents such as a passport or driving licence. We will never ask for them on WhatsApp, and WhatsApp's own rules for businesses do not allow us to ask for card numbers or identity numbers in a chat. If you tell us about a dental problem, we treat that as we treat anything else you tell us about your care; once you are a patient, what goes into your dental record is covered by our separate patient privacy notice, available at the practice.
WhatsApp is not a way to reach us urgently. While we are open, a message can sit unread when we are with patients; when we are closed, nobody is reading it. Please phone 0131 228 2442 while we are open. If we are closed and it cannot wait, phone NHS 24 on 111, and if swelling is spreading towards your eye or down your neck, or you have difficulty swallowing or breathing, call 999 or go to A&E.
Cookies and similar technologies
When you first visit, a banner asks whether you accept analytics cookies. Choosing Essential only means none of the analytics cookies below are set, and no analytics scripts are loaded. You can change your choice at any time:
| Name | Set by | Purpose | Lasts | Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| cdc_consent | City Dental Care (first-party, browser storage) | Remembers the choice you made in the cookie banner so we don't ask again. | Until you change it or clear your browser data | Essential |
| cdc_source | City Dental Care (first-party) | Remembers how you first found the website (for example Google, Instagram, or a link on our Google profile) so that, if you go on to book, we know which channel led to it. Holds a channel label only - no identity. | 90 days | Analytics — set only if you accept |
| cdc_from | City Dental Care (first-party, browser storage) | Remembers which page of our own site you were on when you pressed Book, so we can tell which pages lead to appointments. Holds a page address on our site and nothing else. | Until you close the tab | Analytics — set only if you accept |
| cdc_handoff_at | City Dental Care (first-party, browser storage) | Remembers the time you left our site for the online booking system, so that if you come back before finishing we can tell how long you spent there and improve that step. Holds a time and nothing else. | Until you close the tab | Analytics — set only if you accept |
| cdc_gclid | City Dental Care (first-party) | Set only if you arrive from one of our Google adverts. Holds the click identifier Google gave that advert click, so that if you go on to book we can tell Google the advert worked. It identifies the click, not you, and we never send Google your name, contact details or anything about your treatment. | 90 days | Advertising — set only if you accept |
| _ga, _ga_* | Google Analytics 4 | Distinguishes visitors and sessions so we can see how the site is used in aggregate. | Up to 2 years | Analytics — set only if you accept |
| _clck, _clsk | Microsoft Clarity | Session recordings and heatmaps showing how pages are scrolled and used, so we can improve them. Clarity masks text typed into forms. | _clck up to 1 year; _clsk 1 day | Analytics — set only if you accept |
Two other services may set cookies of their own when you use them: the Jotform forms embedded on our contact and referral pages, and the Google Maps link on the contact page. Videos on the site are hosted by us and set no cookies. Online booking happens on citydentalcare.portal.dental, a separate site run by our booking provider with its own cookie notice.
Your rights
Under UK data protection law you can:
- ask for a copy of the information we hold about you;
- ask us to correct anything that is inaccurate;
- ask us to delete information, where we have no lawful reason to keep it;
- object to, or ask us to restrict, how we use your information;
- withdraw consent at any time — for cookies, use the settings button above.
To exercise any of these, email info@citydentalcare.co.uk or write to the practice. We'll respond within one month.
How to complain
If you are unhappy with how we have handled your information, please tell us first so we can put it right. You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner's Office: ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint or 0303 123 1113.
Security and changes
The website is served over HTTPS, and the systems that receive form submissions and booking confirmations are access-controlled. We'll update this notice when the website changes what it collects; the date at the top tells you when that last happened. Our terms and conditions, refunds policy and feedback and complaints pages cover the rest.