Rate-a-Locum Privacy Policy

Welcome to Rate-a-Locum. We respect your privacy and are committed to protecting your personal data.

This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, share, store, and safeguard your information when you use our platform, including www.ratealocum.co.uk.

By using the platform, you acknowledge the privacy practices described in this policy.

We may collect account details such as your first name, last name, NHS email address, phone number, pharmacy branch name, and related profile information.

We may collect professional verification information such as registration numbers, branch-verification data, phone-verification records, and supporting documentation where verification is required.

We collect reviews, ratings, feedback, booking records, locum identifiers, locum contact details provided by branches, agreement customisation choices, agreement issue records, invoice and monthly statement dispatch records, support requests, settings choices, branch-linking activity, subscription or billing records, shortage reports, and other content you submit through the platform.

Locum profile information may come from the public GPhC register, verified pharmacy branches, the locum directly, and records created through genuine platform bookings and agreements. Our dedicated Locum Privacy Notice explains this processing in more detail.

We may collect technical and usage data such as IP address, browser type, cookies, device data, session data, login attempts, user-agent data, 2FA setup and verification events, and terms-acceptance metadata.

We use personal data to verify professional identity, confirm branch affiliation, and maintain trust and quality on the platform.

We use personal data to operate, maintain, secure, moderate, and improve the platform and its features.

We use personal data to manage bookings, reviews, agreement workflows, invoice and statement workflows, Business Manager alerts, subscriptions, billing, support requests, linked-branch access, security events, and important service communications.

Where we process locum professional information and branch-authored opinions for platform integrity and booking decision support, we generally rely on our legitimate interests and those of participating pharmacy branches. We assess these interests against the rights and reasonable expectations of the people concerned.

We may process personal data to comply with legal obligations, investigate misuse, enforce our terms, and defend legal claims.

We do not sell, rent, or trade your personal information to third parties.

We use password hashing, encrypted or server-side security secrets where appropriate, controlled access, and other reasonable technical and organisational measures to protect personal data.

Supporting files and verification records are stored with restricted access for authorised personnel only.

No internet-based system can be guaranteed fully secure, but we work to reduce risk through monitoring, security controls, and limited-access processes.

We retain personal data only for as long as reasonably necessary to provide our services, operate the platform, maintain security and moderation records, manage subscriptions, or comply with legal requirements. Retention is reviewed by record category rather than keeping all records indefinitely.

We may retain limited records where needed to evidence consent, prevent fraud or abuse, resolve disputes, or satisfy legal and regulatory obligations.

You may request deletion of your data by contacting info@ratealocum.co.uk, although we may retain certain information where the law permits or requires it.

We may share personal data with service providers who support hosting, cloud infrastructure, database services, email delivery, payment processing, verification, monitoring, analytics, or security operations.

Where you choose to send agreement, invoice, statement, or support emails through the platform, relevant message content and recipient details are processed by the configured email delivery provider.

We may share information with legal authorities, regulators, courts, or law-enforcement bodies where required by law or reasonably necessary to protect the platform or others.

We may share or transfer information in connection with a merger, acquisition, financing, asset sale, or similar business transaction.

Your information may be transferred to and stored outside the United Kingdom where appropriate safeguards are in place in accordance with applicable data protection laws.

Subject to applicable law, you may have the right to access your personal data, correct inaccuracies, request deletion, object to certain processing, restrict processing, or withdraw consent where processing is based on consent.

To exercise your rights, request correction of an inaccurate record, object to processing, or ask us to restrict a review while it is checked, email info@ratealocum.co.uk.

If you believe your personal data has not been handled correctly, you may complain to the Information Commissioner's Office at www.ico.org.uk.

We use essential cookies for site functionality, login sessions, preferences, and security controls. On the public home page only, Google Analytics starts in privacy-limited consent mode with analytics storage denied. This permits cookieless statistical measurement without placing Google Analytics cookies. Advertising storage, advertising personalisation, advertising user data, and Google signals remain disabled.

We use this limited measurement solely to understand aggregate use of the home page and improve the service. Google may receive technical measurement data such as the page path, timestamp, browser or device information and referrer. We do not send the home-page query string. We do not use this measurement for advertising, cross-service tracking, or individual profiling.

You can turn this measurement off at any time using the banner or Analytics settings in the site footer. You can separately choose Allow analytics cookies for fuller measurement. Turning analytics off or declining analytics cookies does not affect essential login, security, or preference cookies.

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time.

Updated versions will be posted with the revised date, and continued use of the platform after changes means you acknowledge the updated policy.