Privacy Policy

Last updated: 19 September 2026

1. About this Privacy Policy

NEI Doctors UK respects your privacy and is committed to protecting your personal information.

This Privacy Policy explains:

• What personal information we collect
• How and why we use it
• The lawful bases on which we process it
• Who we may share it with
• How long we retain it
• The rights available to you

 

This policy applies to the NEI Doctors UK website at https://neidoctorsuk.org, including membership accounts, member profiles, the members’ directory, forums, newsletters, events and contact facilities.

2. Who we are

NEI Doctors UK is a professional and community network for doctors from North-East India who live or work in the United Kingdom.

For the purposes of UK data-protection law, NEI Doctors UK is the data controller responsible for the personal information described in this policy.

Website: https://neidoctorsuk.org
Privacy enquiries: privacy@neidoctorsuk.org

3. Personal information we collect

The information we collect depends on how you interact with our website and services.

3.1 Account and membership information

When you register for an account or become a member, we may collect:

• First name and last name
• Email address
• Username
• Encrypted account password
• Medical college
• Year of graduation
• Professional designation
• Medical speciality
• Organisation or workplace
• LinkedIn profile address
• Country, region or place of origin
• Current place of residence
• Date of birth
• Gender
• Hobbies and interests
• Profile photograph
• Membership status
• Account and communication preferences

Where information is optional, you may choose whether to provide it.

3.2 Member profiles and directory

The members’ directory is accessible only to registered and authorised NEI Doctors UK members.

Information entered into your member profile—including your name, profile photograph and selected professional information—may be visible to other members. It will not ordinarily be displayed to visitors who are not logged in.

You should only add information that you are comfortable sharing with other members. You can edit or remove optional information through your account or contact us for assistance.

We may change how the directory operates in the future. If a proposed change would make members’ profile information available to a wider audience, we will provide appropriate notice and obtain permission where required before making that information public.

3.3 Forum posts, comments and community content

If you participate in our forum or other interactive areas, we may collect and display:

• Your username or display name
• Profile photograph
• Posts, replies and comments
• Images or files you upload
• The date and time of your contribution
• Technical information used for security and moderation

Forum content may be visible to other registered members. Some website content or comments may be publicly visible where this is clearly indicated.

You must not post patient-identifiable information, confidential clinical information or another person’s private information without an appropriate and lawful reason.

3.4 Newsletter subscriptions

If you choose to subscribe to our newsletter or other email updates, we may collect:

• Your name
• Email address
• Subscription preferences
• The date and method of your consent
• Records of emails sent
• Unsubscription information

Newsletter subscription is optional and is separate from registering as a member. You can unsubscribe at any time by using the unsubscribe link in an email or contacting us.

3.5 Events, webinars and conferences

When you register for or attend an event, webinar, conference or other activity, we may collect:

• Your name and contact details
• Professional role and organisation
• Registration and attendance information
• Accessibility or dietary requirements that you choose to provide
• Payment and transaction information, where applicable
• Feedback about the event
• Photographs, video or audio recordings taken during the event

Where practical, we will notify attendees if photography or recording will take place and explain how concerns or requests can be raised.

Payment-card details will normally be processed directly by an authorised payment provider and will not be stored by NEI Doctors UK unless expressly stated.

3.6 Enquiries and correspondence

If you contact us, we may collect:

• Your name
• Email address or other contact details
• The content of your enquiry
• Our correspondence with you
• Any other information you choose to provide

3.7 Technical and website information

When you visit or use the website, our systems and service providers may automatically collect:

• Internet Protocol address
• Browser and device type
• Operating system
• Date and time of access
• Pages visited
• Referring website
• Login and account activity
• Security, diagnostic and error logs
• Cookie identifiers and similar technical information

4. How we use personal information

We may use your personal information to:

• Create and administer your membership account
• Verify membership eligibility where appropriate
• Authenticate users and keep accounts secure
• Maintain member profiles and the members’ directory
• Provide forums and other community services
• Enable communication and professional networking between members
• Organise conferences, webinars, meetings and social events
• Provide mentorship, guidance and professional support
• Send newsletters and updates where you have requested them
• Respond to enquiries, requests and complaints
• Moderate content and enforce our community rules
• Detect and prevent spam, fraud, misuse and security incidents
• Maintain, analyse and improve the website
• Administer the organisation and maintain appropriate records
• Comply with legal and regulatory obligations
• Establish, exercise or defend legal claims

NEI Doctors UK is a professional and community organisation. Information submitted through the website will not be used to make clinical decisions or provide individual medical advice.

5. Our lawful bases for processing

UK data-protection law requires us to have a lawful basis for processing personal information.

Depending on the circumstances, we may rely on the following bases:

Contract

We may process information where it is necessary to create and manage your membership account, provide requested membership services or administer an event for which you have registered.

Legitimate interests

We may process information where it is necessary for our legitimate interests, including:

• Operating and administering the professional network
• Providing member profiles, directories and community facilities
• Communicating with members
• Organising events and professional activities
• Improving the website and our services
• Protecting accounts and website security
• Preventing misuse
• Protecting our legal rights

When relying on legitimate interests, we consider whether our interests are proportionate and balanced against your rights and reasonable expectations.

Consent

We may rely on your consent for:

• Optional email newsletters and promotional updates
• Non-essential cookies
• Optional photographs or recordings where consent is appropriate
• Other activities where we specifically ask for permission

You may withdraw your consent at any time. Withdrawal will not affect processing that was lawful before consent was withdrawn.

Legal obligation

We may process information where necessary to comply with a legal, financial, regulatory or reporting obligation.

Legal claims

We may retain or use information where necessary to establish, exercise or defend a legal claim.

6. Special-category information

Some information receives additional protection under data-protection law. This may include information about health, ethnicity, religious beliefs or sexual orientation.

We do not normally require members to provide this type of information. However, you may choose to provide limited health information when requesting accessibility arrangements or dietary accommodations for an event.

Where we process special-category information, we will identify an appropriate legal condition, such as your explicit consent or the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims.

Please do not include unnecessary special-category information in your profile, forum posts or general correspondence.

7. Information visible to other people

Information added to your member profile may be visible to other registered members through the members’ directory.

Forum posts, comments and uploaded material may also be visible to other members. Content posted in any area clearly marked as public may be accessible to website visitors and could be indexed by search engines.

You are responsible for ensuring that information you publish does not:

• Identify a patient
• Breach professional confidentiality
• Disclose another person’s private information without permission
• Infringe copyright or other legal rights
• Violate applicable professional or workplace rules

We will not intentionally publish account passwords, private correspondence or information designated as private.

8. Sharing personal information

We may share personal information with:

• Authorised NEI Doctors UK committee members, administrators and volunteers
• Website hosting and maintenance providers
• Email and newsletter service providers
• IT, cybersecurity and backup providers
• Event venues, webinar platforms and event administrators
• Payment providers where payments are accepted
• Professional advisers, insurers, auditors or accountants
• Law-enforcement bodies, courts, regulators or public authorities where legally required

People working on behalf of NEI Doctors UK will only be given access to the information reasonably required for their role.

Service providers acting as data processors are expected to use personal information only in accordance with our instructions and applicable data-protection law.

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

9. Third-party services and links

The website is built using WordPress and may use services and components including:

• Ultimate Member
• wpForo
• Elementor
• Newsletter functionality
• Hostinger website hosting
• Google-hosted fonts
• Security, backup and anti-spam services

The website may also contain links to LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube and other third-party websites.

If you follow an external link or interact with third-party content, the relevant third party may collect information about you. Its processing will be governed by its own privacy policy. NEI Doctors UK is not responsible for the privacy practices or content of external websites.

Where third-party videos, social-media content, maps or similar services are embedded in our website, they may use cookies or collect technical information. Where required, this content will not be activated until you have accepted the relevant cookies.

10. Cookies

Cookies are small files placed on your device when you visit a website.

We may use the following types of cookies:

Strictly necessary cookies

These cookies are required for essential website functions, including:

• Account registration
• Login and authentication
• Session management
• Website security
• Form submission
• Remembering cookie preferences

Strictly necessary cookies cannot normally be disabled through our cookie-preference tool because the website may not function correctly without them.

Preference cookies

These cookies remember choices such as website settings or display preferences.

Analytics cookies

If enabled, analytics cookies help us understand how visitors use the website so that we can improve its content, performance and usability.

Third-party and media cookies

These cookies may be used by embedded videos, social-media services or other external content providers.

Non-essential cookies will remain disabled unless you choose to accept them. Our cookie banner will provide options to:

• Accept all cookies
• Reject non-essential cookies
• Manage cookie preferences

You may change your preferences at any time through the cookie settings available on the website. You can also delete or block cookies through your browser, although this may affect some website functions.

Further details about individual cookies, including their provider, purpose and duration, will be available through our cookie-preference panel or Cookie Policy.

11. International transfers

Some service providers may process or store personal information outside the United Kingdom.

Where personal information is transferred internationally, we will take reasonable steps to ensure that it receives an appropriate level of protection.

This may include relying on:

• UK adequacy regulations
• The UK International Data Transfer Agreement
• The UK Addendum to approved contractual clauses
• Another legally recognised transfer safeguard

You may contact us for further information about safeguards relating to a particular international transfer.

12. How long we retain personal information

We keep personal information only for as long as reasonably necessary for the purpose for which it was collected.

Membership accounts

Account and membership information will normally be retained while your account remains active.

If you ask us to delete your account, we will deactivate it and normally delete or anonymise your profile and members’ directory information within 30 days.

Limited copies may remain in secure backups for up to 90 days before being automatically overwritten.

Forum contributions

Forum posts may be deleted or anonymised rather than completely removed where removal would disrupt the continuity or meaning of a discussion.

For example, the author’s name may be replaced with “Former member”.

Newsletter information

Newsletter subscription information will be retained until you unsubscribe or the newsletter service is discontinued.

After you unsubscribe, we may retain your email address on a minimal suppression list to ensure that we continue to honour your request not to receive marketing emails.

Enquiries and correspondence

Routine enquiries and related correspondence will normally be retained for up to two years after the matter has concluded.

Events and financial records

Event administration records will be retained only as long as reasonably necessary. Financial, payment and accounting records may be retained for up to six years where required for tax, accounting or legal purposes.

Security information

Security and technical logs will normally be retained for a limited period unless they are required to investigate misuse, a security incident or a legal claim.

We may retain particular information for longer where required by law or where necessary to resolve a dispute, prevent misuse or protect our legal rights.

13. Account deletion

You may request deletion of your account by contacting:

privacy@neidoctorsuk.org

We may ask you to confirm the request using the email address connected to your account so that we can verify your identity.

Account deletion will normally include:

• Deactivation of your login
• Removal or anonymisation of your member profile
• Removal from the members’ directory
• Deletion of optional profile photographs and information
• Unlinking or anonymisation of forum contributions where appropriate

Account deletion will not necessarily remove information that we are legally required to retain or information required for security, dispute resolution or legal claims.

Deleting your membership account will not automatically unsubscribe you from an optional newsletter. You may unsubscribe using the link included in any newsletter or ask us to remove you from both services.

14. Security

We use reasonable technical and organisational measures designed to protect personal information against:

• Accidental loss
• Unauthorised access
• Misuse
• Alteration
• Disclosure
• Destruction

Access to personal information is limited to people who require it for an authorised purpose.

No website or internet transmission can be guaranteed to be completely secure. You are responsible for keeping your password confidential and should use a strong, unique password for your account.

Please contact us promptly if you believe your account or personal information has been compromised.

15. Your data-protection rights

Depending on the circumstances, you may have the right to:

• Ask for confirmation that we process your personal information
• Request a copy of the personal information we hold about you
• Ask us to correct inaccurate or incomplete information
• Ask us to erase your personal information
• Ask us to restrict how we use your information
• Object to processing based on legitimate interests
• Object to direct marketing at any time
• Receive certain information in a portable format
• Withdraw consent where processing relies on consent
• Complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office

These rights are subject to legal limitations and exemptions.

To exercise a right, contact privacy@neidoctorsuk.org. We may ask for information to verify your identity before acting on a request.

We will normally respond within one month. We will notify you if a request is particularly complex and requires additional time.

16. Children

The website and membership network are intended for medical professionals and are not directed at children.

We do not knowingly invite children to create accounts or submit personal information. If you believe that a child has provided personal information through the website, please contact us so that we can investigate and take appropriate action.

17. Patient and clinical information

NEI Doctors UK is a professional networking and community organisation. The website is not intended for:

• Patient referrals
• Clinical consultations
• Medical records
• Requests for urgent medical assistance
• Exchange of patient-identifiable information

Members must not post or upload information that identifies a patient or breaches professional confidentiality.

Any educational discussion of clinical cases must be appropriately anonymised and must comply with applicable professional, legal and workplace requirements.

18. Photography and recordings

Photographs or recordings may be taken at NEI Doctors UK events for educational, archival or promotional purposes.

Where practical, attendees will be informed in advance or through notices displayed at the event. Anyone who does not wish to be photographed or recorded should notify an organiser.

Where consent is the appropriate lawful basis, you may withdraw that consent by contacting us. We will take reasonable steps regarding future use, although withdrawal may not affect material already lawfully published or distributed.

19. Complaints

If you have concerns about how we use your personal information, please contact us first so that we have an opportunity to investigate:

privacy@neidoctorsuk.org

You also have the right to complain to the UK Information Commissioner’s Office:

Information Commissioner’s Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF

Telephone: 0303 123 1113
Website: https://ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint/

20. Changes to this Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy if our website, activities, data-processing practices or legal obligations change.

The latest version will be published on this page with an updated revision date.

If a change materially affects how we use members’ personal information, we may also notify members by email or through their accounts.

21. Contact us

For questions about this Privacy Policy, requests concerning your personal information or data-protection complaints, contact:

NEI Doctors UK
Website: https://neidoctorsuk.org
Email: privacy@neidoctorsuk.org