Your Information, Protected

Privacy Policy

How North Lakes Paediatric Dentistry collects, uses, stores and protects the personal and health information you share with us.

Last updated: 5 October 2026

1. Introduction

North Lakes Paediatric Dentistry ("NLPD", "we", "us", "our") is committed to protecting the privacy of our patients, their families, and website visitors. This policy explains how we collect, use, disclose and protect personal information — including sensitive health information — in accordance with the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs).

By using our website or submitting information through our forms, you consent to the practices described in this policy.

2. What Information We Collect

We collect personal information directly from you when you use the forms on our website, including:

  • Contact / Enquiry form: full name, phone number, email address, your child's age or service needed, and your message.
  • Book an Appointment form: parent/guardian name, child's name, phone number, email address, reason for visit, and any additional message.
  • Referral form: patient name, date of birth, gender, phone/mobile number, email address, residential address, medical history (including allergies, medications and conditions), reason for referral, radiographs or clinical images you choose to attach, and the referring practitioner's name, phone number, practice name and email.

Medical history and referral details are sensitive health information under the Privacy Act, and are only collected with your consent (via a parent, guardian, or referring practitioner) for the purpose of providing dental care.

We also automatically collect limited technical information (such as IP address) for security purposes — see "Security & Fraud Prevention" below.

3. How We Use Your Information

We use the information you provide to:

  • Respond to your enquiry and arrange appointments;
  • Review referrals and prepare for your child's specialist treatment;
  • Contact you (by phone or email) about your enquiry, booking or referral;
  • Send confirmation emails and, where applicable, send a copy of a submitted referral to the patient's family and the referring practitioner;
  • Maintain accurate clinical and administrative records; and
  • Comply with our legal and professional obligations.

We do not use your information for unrelated marketing purposes without your separate consent, and we do not sell your personal information.

4. How Your Information Is Stored and Protected

Form submissions are transmitted securely and stored in a protected database. We apply reasonable technical and organisational safeguards, including:

  • Encrypted transmission (HTTPS) for all form submissions;
  • CSRF (cross-site request forgery) protection and spam/bot filtering (including Google reCAPTCHA) on every form;
  • Access to stored records limited to authorised NLPD staff; and
  • Uploaded radiographs/images stored in a protected, non-public directory.

No method of electronic transmission or storage is 100% secure, but we take reasonable steps to protect your information from misuse, interference, loss, and unauthorised access, modification or disclosure.

5. Who We Share Information With

We only disclose personal information where necessary to provide your care, or where required by law, including to:

  • Our dental specialists and clinical staff involved in your child's care;
  • The referring practitioner (for referral submissions), to keep them updated on their patient's treatment;
  • Hospitals, anaesthetists or allied health providers, where a referral or treatment plan requires it;
  • Our email and IT service providers, who process data solely to deliver our services (e.g. sending confirmation emails); and
  • Google reCAPTCHA, a third-party service we use to prevent spam and fraudulent form submissions. Your interaction with reCAPTCHA is subject to Google's Privacy Policy and Terms of Service.

We do not disclose your personal or health information to any other third party without your consent, except as required or authorised by law.

6. Security & Fraud Prevention

To protect our forms from spam and fraudulent submissions, we use Google reCAPTCHA, which assesses visitor behaviour and may collect hardware and software information (such as device and application data) and send it to Google for analysis. We also apply rate-limiting to prevent automated abuse of our forms.

7. Data Retention

We retain personal and health information for as long as necessary to provide our services and to meet our legal, clinical record-keeping and regulatory obligations (which, for health records in Queensland, is generally a minimum of 7 years from the last consultation, or until a child patient turns 25, whichever is longer). Information is securely deleted or de-identified once it is no longer required.

8. Access and Correction

You have the right to request access to the personal information we hold about you or your child, and to request that we correct any information that is inaccurate, out of date or incomplete. To make a request, please contact us using the details below.

9. Children's Information

As a paediatric dental practice, much of the information we collect relates to children. This information is provided to us by a parent, guardian or referring healthcare practitioner on the child's behalf, and is handled with the same safeguards described in this policy.

10. Complaints

If you have a concern about how we have handled your personal information, please contact us first using the details below so we can investigate and respond. If you are not satisfied with our response, you may lodge a complaint with the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) at www.oaic.gov.au.

11. Changes to This Policy

We may update this policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices or legal obligations. The "last updated" date at the top of this page indicates when it was last revised.

12. Contact Us

For privacy-related questions or requests, please contact: