Privacy notice
Last updated 18 October 2026. Written to be read, not to be survived.
The short version. If you send me an enquiry I use your details to answer it and for nothing else. I do not sell them, I do not share them with marketing companies, and I do not add you to a mailing list unless you ask me to. Nothing is set on your device for analytics unless you agree to it first.
Who is responsible for your information
There are two answers, and the honest thing is to give you both.
For anything you send through this website, the data controller is Dr Dan Shaffer, BDS, RDT, PgCert Dental Law, GDC registration number 75967. You can reach me at yourfuturesmiles@googlemail.com.
For your clinical records once you become a patient, the data controller is Pure Dentistry, 399 Luton Road, Harpenden, Hertfordshire AL5 3NF, which is the provider registered with the Care Quality Commission at that address. I treat patients there as an associate dentist, so your dental records are created and held by the practice under its own privacy notice and its own retention rules. Ask at reception for a copy, or ask me and I will get it for you.
What I collect, and why
| What | Why | Lawful basis |
|---|---|---|
| Your name, email address and phone number | To reply to your enquiry and arrange an assessment | Steps taken at your request before entering a contract, UK GDPR Article 6(1)(b) |
| The town you are based in | To tell you honestly how far you would be travelling | Article 6(1)(b) |
| Anything you choose to write in the message box | To understand what you are asking before you come in | Article 6(1)(b). If you mention your health, that is special category data and I rely on Article 9(2)(h), the provision of health care by a professional under a duty of confidentiality |
| Photographs of your teeth, if you choose to send them | So I can tell you whether aligners are likely to give you what you want, before you spend anything | Article 9(2)(h), health care provided by a professional under a duty of confidentiality, together with your explicit agreement given on the smile check page. They are never uploaded to this website. They arrive in my own mailbox or on WhatsApp |
| Anonymised page statistics, only if you agree | To see which pages are actually useful | Your consent, Article 6(1)(a), and regulation 6 of PECR |
Photographs are different from medical history. Photographs of your teeth, sent by email or WhatsApp, are genuinely useful to me and you are welcome to send them. Please do not type a detailed medical history into a web form. Tell me there is something I should know and we will go through it properly at your assessment, where it can be recorded in your clinical notes.
Cookies and analytics
This site sets nothing on your device until you choose. When you first arrive you are asked whether you are happy for me to use Google Analytics. If you decline, or simply ignore the banner, no analytics and no advertising scripts load at all. Your choice is remembered in your own browser and nowhere else.
If you do agree, Google Analytics gives me counts of pages viewed, with your IP address truncated. It does not tell me who you are. You can change your mind at any time by clearing this site's data in your browser settings.
I do not run advertising or conversion tracking on the enquiry or confirmation pages. An enquiry about dental treatment says something about your health, and that is not information I am willing to hand to an advertising platform.
Who else sees your enquiry
- My form provider, FormSubmit, receives your message in order to deliver it to me. They act on my instructions as a processor, they do not use it for their own purposes, and they do not store your enquiry once it has been delivered.
- My email provider stores the message in my mailbox, as with any email.
- Pure Dentistry, if your enquiry turns into an appointment, because that is where you would be treated and where your records are kept.
- Nobody else. I do not sell data, I do not share it with other practices or laboratories, and I do not pass it to advertising networks.
How long I keep it
If your enquiry does not lead to treatment, I delete it after 24 months. That is long enough to pick up a conversation where it was left, and no longer.
Photographs you send me are deleted within three months if you do not go ahead, and sooner if you ask. They are never published and never used in marketing. If I ever wanted to show a before and after of your treatment, that is a separate signed consent form which you are free to refuse and free to withdraw later.
If you become a patient, your clinical records are kept by Pure Dentistry for the period set out in its own retention policy. For adults that is normally at least eleven years after the last entry, and for children until their twenty fifth birthday.
Your rights
You can ask me for a copy of what I hold about you, ask me to correct it, ask me to delete it, ask me to restrict what I do with it, or object to my using it. You can also withdraw any consent you have given, which will not affect anything done before you withdrew it.
Email yourfuturesmiles@googlemail.com and I will respond within one month. There is no charge.
If you are unhappy with how I have handled your information you can complain to the Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF, telephone 0303 123 1113, ico.org.uk. You do not have to raise it with me first, although I would rather you gave me the chance to put it right.
Changes
If this notice changes, the date at the top changes with it. I do not make changes retrospectively and I will not start using information you have already given me for a new purpose without telling you.