Privacy Policy

Last updated: 30 July 2026

Happy Feet Podiatry is committed to protecting the privacy of your personal and health information. This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, store, and disclose your information, and outlines your rights in relation to that information.

We are bound by the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs), including the amendments introduced by the Privacy and Other Legislation Amendment Act 2024. As a podiatry practice operating in New South Wales, we also comply with the Health Records and Information Privacy Act 2002 (NSW) (HRIP Act) and the Health Privacy Principles (HPPs) contained within it.

By using our website or attending our clinic, you agree to the collection and use of your information in accordance with this policy.

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1. About Us

Happy Feet Podiatry is a private podiatry practice providing foot and ankle care services to patients in Newcastle and the surrounding region. We are registered with the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA) and are members of the Australian Podiatry Association (APodA).

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2. What Information We Collect

Personal Information

We may collect the following personal information:

• Full name, date of birth, and gender
• Contact details including address, phone number, and email address
• Medicare number, DVA number, and private health fund details
• Emergency contact details
• Referral information from other health practitioners

Health Information

As a health service provider, we collect health information that is necessary to provide you with podiatry care. This may include:

• Medical history, current medications, and allergies
• Presenting conditions, symptoms, and complaints
• Clinical examination findings and assessments
• Diagnoses and treatment plans
• Clinical notes, progress records, and treatment outcomes
• X-ray and imaging reports
• Referral letters to and from other health professionals
• Orthotic prescriptions and records
• Surgical procedure records

Website, Booking, and Communication Information

When you visit our website, make an online booking, or contact us through any digital channel, we may collect:

• Name, email address, and phone number provided via our contact or booking forms
• Appointment booking details submitted through our online booking system (Nookal)
• Messages and enquiries submitted through our website contact form, email, or AI assistant
• Call recordings where you are notified that a call is being recorded
• Technical data such as IP address, browser type, device information, and pages visited (collected automatically via cookies and analytics tools)

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3. How We Collect Your Information

We collect information in the following ways:

• Directly from you — when you complete a patient registration form, attend an appointment, contact us by phone, email, SMS, or via our website or AI assistant
• From other health professionals — such as your GP, specialist, or allied health provider, when they refer you to us or share clinical information relevant to your care
• From Medicare, DVA, or your health fund — in connection with billing and rebate processing
• Through our online booking and practice management system (Nookal)
• Through our AI receptionist (BookedSolid) — when you contact us by phone, email, or chat and interact with our AI assistant
• Through our website — via contact forms, cookies, and website analytics
• Through our email marketing platform (Mailchimp) — when you subscribe to receive practice updates or health information

We will always endeavour to collect information directly from you where it is reasonable and practical to do so.

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4. Why We Collect Your Information and How We Use It

We collect and use your personal and health information for the following purposes:

• To provide podiatry consultations, assessments, and treatments
• To manage and maintain your clinical records
• To communicate with you regarding appointments, follow-up care, and health reminders
• To process Medicare, DVA, and private health fund claims and rebates
• To liaise with other health professionals involved in your care
• To comply with our legal and professional obligations, including those under AHPRA registration standards
• To manage our practice operations, including quality improvement and clinical governance
• To respond to your enquiries submitted via our website, email, phone, or AI assistant
• To send you practice updates, health information, and appointment reminders via email (where you have consented)
• To improve our website and understand how visitors interact with it, using analytics and advertising tools

We will not use or disclose your information for purposes other than those listed above without your consent, unless required or authorised by law.

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5. Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) Tools

BookedSolid AI Receptionist

We use BookedSolid (bookedsolid.health), an AI-powered receptionist platform, to assist with:

• Answering patient phone calls
• Responding to patient emails and messages
• Managing appointment bookings, rescheduling, and cancellations
• Responding to general enquiries about our services

BookedSolid integrates directly with our practice management system (Nookal) to access and update appointment information. When you interact with BookedSolid, your name, contact details, and appointment information may be processed by the platform.

Call recordings: Where call recording is enabled, you will be notified at the beginning of the call that it may be recorded. Recordings are used for quality assurance and service improvement purposes.

BookedSolid Ltd is a UK-based company that acknowledges Australian privacy obligations and the OAIC. Their privacy policy is available at bookedsolid.health/privacy. As a UK-based provider, your data may be processed and stored outside of Australia. BookedSolid implements appropriate technical and organisational security measures to protect your information.

You will always be informed when you are interacting with our AI assistant. If you prefer to speak with a human staff member, you may request this at any time during any interaction.

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6. Disclosure of Your Information

We may disclose your personal and health information to the following parties where necessary and appropriate:

• Other treating health professionals — such as your GP, medical specialists, physiotherapists, or other allied health providers, for the purpose of coordinating your care
• Medicare Australia and the Department of Veterans’ Affairs (DVA) — for billing and rebate processing
• Your private health fund — for the processing of health fund claims
• Pathology and imaging services — where we refer you for further investigation
• Nookal — our practice management and booking platform (servers located in Australia)
• BookedSolid — our AI receptionist platform, for the purpose of managing enquiries and appointments (UK-based, data may be processed outside Australia)
• Mailchimp (Intuit Inc.) — our email marketing platform, used to send practice updates and health information to patients who have opted in to receive them. Mailchimp is a US-based service. Data transferred to Mailchimp is subject to their privacy policy, available at intuit.com/privacy/statement
• Google — we use Google Analytics to understand website usage, and Google Ads conversion tracking to measure the effectiveness of our advertising. Google is a US-based service and your information may be processed and stored outside Australia. See Section 8 for more information.
• Microsoft — we use Microsoft Clarity to understand how visitors use our website. Microsoft is a US-based service and your information may be processed and stored outside Australia. See Section 8 for more information.
• Trustindex — our website displays our Google reviews using a widget provided by Trustindex. Displaying the widget loads content from Trustindex servers.
• Afterpay — if you choose to use Afterpay as a payment method, your payment information will be processed by Afterpay in accordance with their privacy policy
• AHPRA and the Podiatry Board of Australia — where required by our registration obligations
• Legal and regulatory authorities — where required or authorised by law, including in response to a subpoena, court order, or mandatory reporting obligation
• Our professional indemnity insurer — where required for managing a claim or complaint

We will not sell, rent, or trade your personal information to third parties for marketing purposes.

Where your information is disclosed to overseas recipients (including BookedSolid in the UK and Mailchimp in the US), we take reasonable steps to ensure those recipients handle your information in a manner consistent with the Australian Privacy Principles.

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7. Storage and Security of Your Information

We take the security of your personal and health information seriously. Your clinical information is stored in our secure, password-protected practice management system (Nookal). Paper records, where held, are stored in a secure, locked environment accessible only to authorised staff. All staff are required to maintain the confidentiality of patient information.

We implement appropriate physical, electronic, and procedural safeguards to protect your information from misuse, unauthorised access, modification, or disclosure.

In the event of a data breach that is likely to result in serious harm, we will notify affected individuals and the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) in accordance with the Notifiable Data Breaches (NDB) scheme under the Privacy Act.

Retention of Health Records

Under NSW law and professional guidelines, we are required to retain adult patient health records for a minimum of 7 years from the date of last entry. For patients who were minors at the time of treatment, records are retained until the patient turns 25, or for 7 years from the date of last entry, whichever is the longer period. Records are securely destroyed when retention periods have been met.

Retention of Website Enquiries

Enquiries submitted through our website contact form are stored in our website database and are also sent to us by email. We retain website enquiries in our website database for 3 months, after which they are deleted. Where an enquiry leads to you becoming a patient, the relevant information is transferred to your clinical record and is then retained under the health record retention periods above.

Website enquiry records may include your name, contact details, the content of your enquiry, and technical information such as your IP address.

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8. Cookies, Tracking Technologies, and Advertising

Cookies

Our website uses cookies — small text files stored on your device — to improve your browsing experience and collect website usage data. You can disable cookies through your browser settings, however some features of the website may not function correctly if you do so.

Our website does not currently present a cookie consent banner. Analytics and advertising cookies are set when you visit the site. If you prefer not to be tracked, you can block or clear cookies in your browser settings, or use the private browsing mode in your browser.

Google Analytics, Google Ads and Google Tag Manager

We use Google Tag Manager to manage the analytics and advertising tools on our website. Through it we use:

• Google Analytics — to collect data about how visitors use our website, including pages visited, time spent on the site, and general geographic location.
• Google Ads conversion tracking — to measure which advertisements lead to enquiries and bookings. This sets cookies from Google advertising domains.

Because our website includes pages relating to specific foot and ankle conditions, page-visit data could potentially be used to infer health-related interests. We take this seriously. We limit the data shared with Google to what is necessary for measuring our advertising, and we do not upload patient records, clinical information, or health fund details to any advertising platform.

Google’s privacy policy is available at policies.google.com/privacy.

Microsoft Clarity

We use Microsoft Clarity to understand how visitors use our website. Clarity records how visitors interact with our pages — including mouse movement, clicks, scrolling, and the pages viewed — and produces aggregated heatmaps and session replays.

We have configured Clarity so that the contents of all form fields on our website are masked and are not recorded. This includes our contact form and our careers application forms.

Clarity sets cookies on your device and shares data with Microsoft, including Bing, which may set further cookies of its own. Microsoft is a US-based company and your information may be processed and stored outside Australia. The Microsoft privacy statement is available at privacy.microsoft.com/privacystatement.

Google Reviews Widget (Trustindex)

Our website displays our Google reviews using a widget provided by Trustindex. Displaying the widget loads content from Trustindex servers. The Trustindex privacy policy is available at trustindex.io/privacy-policy.

Online Booking Widget (Nookal)

Our website uses an online booking widget provided by Nookal. When you make an online booking, you will be subject to Nookal’s privacy policy in addition to ours.

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9. Email Marketing (Mailchimp)

We use Mailchimp (provided by Intuit Inc.) to send practice updates, health information, and appointment-related communications to patients who have opted in to receive them.

If you subscribe to our email communications, Mailchimp will store your name and email address on our behalf. Mailchimp is a US-based service and your information may be stored on servers located outside Australia.

You may unsubscribe from our email communications at any time by:

• Clicking the “Unsubscribe” link at the bottom of any email we send you
• Contacting us directly at admin@happyfeetpodiatry.net

Unsubscribing from marketing emails will not affect your receipt of appointment confirmations or clinical communications.

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10. Links to Third-Party Websites

Our website may contain links to external websites, including our social media profiles (Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube), our online booking system, and third-party payment providers. We are not responsible for the privacy practices of those websites and encourage you to review their privacy policies independently.

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11. Your Rights

Access to Your Information

You have the right to request access to the personal and health information we hold about you. To make an access request, please contact us in writing using the details below. We will respond within 28 days. In most cases, access will be provided free of charge, however a reasonable fee may apply for retrieving and copying extensive records. We will advise you of any applicable fee before processing your request.

There are limited circumstances in which we may refuse access, for example where providing access would pose a serious threat to the health or safety of another person, or where access is restricted by law. If we refuse access, we will provide written reasons.

Correction of Your Information

If you believe that information we hold about you is inaccurate, incomplete, or out of date, you may request that we correct it. We will take reasonable steps to correct the information. If we are unable to make the correction requested, we will provide written reasons and advise you of your right to request that a notation be added to your record.

Anonymity

Where lawful and practicable, we will offer you the option of interacting with us anonymously or using a pseudonym. However, in most cases it will not be practicable for us to provide podiatry services without knowing your identity, as this is required for clinical care and to process Medicare and health fund claims.

Opting Out of AI Interactions

If you prefer not to interact with our AI assistant and wish to speak with a human staff member, you may request this at any time. Please contact us directly by phone during business hours at (02) 4963 6200.

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12. Children’s Privacy

We provide podiatry services to children and young people. Where a patient is under 18 years of age, we generally collect health information from a parent or legal guardian. We take additional care to ensure the privacy of health information relating to minors. A parent or guardian may request access to a child’s health records on their behalf, subject to the child’s capacity and any relevant legal requirements.

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13. Job Applicants

When you apply for a position with us through our website, we collect your name, contact details, the position you are applying for, any cover letter or supporting information you provide, and your resume or CV if you upload one.

We use this information solely to assess your application, to contact you about it, and to comply with our record-keeping obligations. We do not use it for marketing.

Applications submitted through our website are stored in our website database on our hosting provider servers in Australia, and are also sent by email to the practice. Any uploaded documents are stored on the same servers.

We retain unsuccessful applications for up to 12 months, after which they are securely deleted, unless you ask us to keep them on file for future opportunities.

You may request access to, correction of, or deletion of your application information at any time using the contact details in this policy.

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14. How to Make a Privacy Complaint

If you believe that we have not handled your personal or health information in accordance with this policy, the Privacy Act, the Australian Privacy Principles, or the HRIP Act, we encourage you to contact us in the first instance so that we can attempt to resolve your concern.

We will acknowledge your complaint within 5 business days and aim to resolve it within 30 days. If we are unable to resolve your complaint to your satisfaction, or if you prefer not to contact us directly, you may lodge a complaint with:

• Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC)
  Website: www.oaic.gov.au | Phone: 1300 363 992
• Information and Privacy Commission NSW (IPC NSW)
  Website: www.ipc.nsw.gov.au | Phone: 1800 472 679
  (For complaints relating to health information under the HRIP Act)

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15. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices or in applicable law. The current version will always be available at happyfeetpodiatry.net/privacy-policy. The date of the most recent update is shown at the top of this page.

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16. Contact Us

For any questions, requests, or concerns regarding this Privacy Policy or the handling of your personal or health information, please contact us: