Privacy Policy

Chiro Central · 455 Pacific Hwy, Crows Nest NSW 2066 · chirocentral.com.au

1. Introduction

This Privacy Policy explains how Chiro Central ("Chiro Central", "we", "us", "our") collects, holds, uses, and discloses personal information, including sensitive health information, about the people we deal with — primarily our patients, but also website visitors, prospective patients, and other individuals who contact us. It applies to information we collect through our clinic at 455 Pacific Hwy, Crows Nest NSW 2066, through our website at chirocentral.com.au, through our online booking system, over the phone, by email, and in person during consultations and treatment.

We take the privacy of your personal and health information seriously. As a health service provider, we understand that the information you share with us is deeply personal, and we are committed to handling it responsibly, transparently, and in accordance with the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and the 13 Australian Privacy Principles (APPs) that apply to how organisations like ours collect, use, store, and disclose personal information.

This policy applies to all current and prospective patients of Chiro Central, including patients under the age of 18 and their parents or guardians, as well as anyone who browses our website or makes an enquiry with us.

2. Who We Are

Chiro Central is a chiropractic and musculoskeletal health clinic operating as a sole trader in New South Wales, Australia.

• Legal / trading name: Chiro Central
• Business structure: Sole Trader (ABN 59 504 713 180)
• Address: 455 Pacific Hwy, Crows Nest NSW 2066, Australia
• Email: thechirocentral@gmail.com
• Phone: +61 451 226 451
• Website: chirocentral.com.au

For the purposes of the Privacy Act 1988, Chiro Central is an "APP entity" and is responsible for deciding how and why your personal information, including your health information, is collected, used, stored, and disclosed. As a sole trader, the practice is operated and controlled by its principal practitioner, who is the person responsible for privacy compliance at the clinic and can be contacted using the details above.

3. What Personal Data We Collect

Because we provide chiropractic and related musculoskeletal care, most of the information we collect is necessary for us to safely assess, treat, and manage your care. The categories of information we collect include:

• Identity data: your full name, date of birth, gender, and, where relevant to a claim or referral, Medicare number, private health fund details, or referring practitioner details.
• Contact data: your residential or postal address, email address, and phone number, and emergency contact details where provided.
• Health and clinical data: information you or a referring practitioner provide about your presenting complaint, medical history, medications, allergies, prior injuries or surgeries, and any information generated during your care, including clinical notes, examination and assessment findings, treatment plans, and records of the specific therapies provided to you, such as chiropractic adjustments, dry needling, cupping, instrument-assisted soft tissue mobilisation (IASTM), rehabilitation exercise programs, and injury prevention advice. This also includes any diagnostic imaging, reports, or correspondence from other health providers that you share with us or that we receive with your consent.
• Financial data: payment details and transaction records relating to consultations and treatment, including amounts charged, payment method, and any health fund claim or rebate information processed through HICAPS.
• Technical data: information collected when you visit our website, such as your IP address, browser type, device information, and general usage data collected via analytics tools.
• Communications data: records of correspondence between you and the clinic, including emails, phone call notes, booking confirmations, and reminder messages sent through our booking system.

Health information is classified as "sensitive information" under the Privacy Act and receives a higher level of protection than other personal information. We only collect sensitive information where it is reasonably necessary for your clinical care, or where we are otherwise permitted or required to do so by law.

4. How We Collect Your Data

We collect personal and health information directly from you wherever possible, and occasionally from other sources when appropriate to your care.

• Directly from you: when you complete a new patient intake form, health history questionnaire, or consent form; when you speak with us in person, by phone, or by email; and during the course of your consultations and treatment.
• Through our online booking system: we use Cliniko to manage appointment bookings, patient records, and clinical documentation. When you book an appointment online, Cliniko collects your name, contact details, and appointment information on our behalf.
• Through payment processing: when you pay for a consultation, information necessary to process your payment is collected via Stripe, HICAPS, credit card, or EFTPOS facilities.
• Through our website: general browsing and usage data is collected automatically via Google Analytics when you visit chirocentral.com.au.
• From other sources: occasionally, and only with your consent or as permitted by law, we may receive information about you from a referring doctor, allied health provider, health fund, or, for patients under 18, from a parent or guardian.

5. Why We Collect Your Data and Our Legal Basis

Under the Australian Privacy Principles, we can only collect personal information that is reasonably necessary for our functions or activities, and we can only collect sensitive health information with your consent (except in limited circumstances permitted by law, such as a serious threat to health or safety). The table below sets out why we collect and use your information and the basis on which we do so.

We do not currently use your information for email marketing or promotional campaigns, as we do not operate an email marketing platform. If this changes in the future, we will update this policy and seek your consent before sending you any marketing communications, and you will always be able to opt out at any time.

6. Who We Share Your Data With

We do not sell your personal information. We only share it with the limited third parties necessary to run the clinic and provide your care, and with your consent or as required by law. Currently, at Chiro Central, the only person who accesses your patient records is the treating practitioner. The third parties below process data on our behalf or as part of your treatment and payment:

• Cliniko (booking and clinical records platform): we use Cliniko to store and manage your appointment bookings and clinical records. Cliniko processes and stores data within Australia.
• Stripe (payment processor): used to process card payments. Stripe is a PCI DSS-compliant payment processor and only receives the information necessary to complete your transaction.
• HICAPS (health fund claims processor): used to process private health fund claims and rebates at the time of payment, where applicable.
• EFTPOS providers and card networks: used to process in-clinic card and EFTPOS payments.
• Google Analytics (website analytics): used to understand how visitors use our website. This may involve your technical and usage data being processed on servers located outside Australia, including in the United States. Google provides contractual safeguards for information it processes, but we recommend reviewing Google's own privacy policy for details of how it handles this data. We do not use Google Analytics to identify you personally.
• Referring or treating health practitioners, or your private health fund: only where you have referred yourself from, or asked us to correspond with, another provider, or where a claim requires it.
• Regulators and authorities: where we are required or authorised by law to disclose information, for example to the Chiropractic Board of Australia / Ahpra, courts, or government agencies.

Where any of these third parties store or process information outside Australia, we take reasonable steps to satisfy ourselves that appropriate protections apply, consistent with our obligations under Australian Privacy Principle 8 (cross-border disclosure). If you would like more detail about a specific provider's data handling practices, please contact us.

7. How Long We Keep Your Data

We retain your clinical and patient records for as long as required under the record-keeping guidelines that apply to chiropractic and allied health providers in New South Wales, consistent with the NSW Health Records and Information Privacy Act 2002 and Chiropractic Board of Australia guidance.

• Adult patients: we retain your clinical records for a minimum of seven (7) years from the date of your last consultation or occasion of service.
• Patients who were under 18 during treatment: we retain those records until the patient turns 25 years of age, or for seven (7) years from the last occasion of service, whichever is longer.

Financial and payment records are generally kept for a minimum of five (5) years to meet our obligations under Australian taxation law. Once the applicable retention period has ended, we securely destroy or permanently de-identify your records, in accordance with our data security practices described below. If you have any questions about how long we hold a specific record, please contact us.

8. How We Keep Your Data Safe

We take reasonable technical and organisational steps to protect your personal and health information from misuse, interference, loss, unauthorised access, modification, or disclosure, consistent with our obligations under Australian Privacy Principle 11.

• Digital storage and access controls: your clinical records are stored digitally within Cliniko, a secure, password-protected clinic management platform. Access to your records is restricted to the treating practitioner, who is the only person at Chiro Central with access to patient data.
• Secure payment handling: payment information is processed through PCI DSS-compliant systems (Stripe, HICAPS, and EFTPOS providers); we do not store your full card details ourselves.
• Confidentiality obligations: as a registered chiropractor, the clinic's principal practitioner is bound by professional and ethical confidentiality obligations under the Chiropractic Board of Australia's Code of Conduct in addition to our obligations under the Privacy Act.
• Physical security: any physical documents held at the clinic (for example, signed consent forms) are kept in a secure location with restricted access.
• Data breach notification: if we experience a data breach that is likely to result in serious harm to you, we will comply with our obligations under the Notifiable Data Breaches (NDB) scheme established under the Privacy Act. This means we will investigate promptly, notify the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC), and notify affected individuals, as required by law.

9. Your Rights

Under the Australian Privacy Principles, you have a number of rights in relation to the personal and health information we hold about you. These include:

• Access: you have the right to ask for a copy of the personal and health information we hold about you. In most cases we will provide access within a reasonable time, though there are limited circumstances (such as a risk to your or another person's safety) in which access may be restricted, which we would explain to you.
• Correction: if any information we hold about you is inaccurate, out of date, incomplete, or misleading, you can ask us to correct it, and we will take reasonable steps to do so.
• Anonymity and pseudonymity: where it is lawful and practicable, you have the option to interact with us anonymously or under a pseudonym, for example for a general enquiry, though this is not usually possible once clinical treatment begins.
• Right to know how your information is used: you can ask us for more detail about how and why we collect, use, or disclose your information, beyond what is set out in this policy.
• Right to complain: you have the right to raise a concern or make a complaint about how we have handled your personal information, as set out in Section 14 below.
• Right to opt out of non-essential communications: although we do not currently send marketing communications, you can always ask us to limit communications to essential clinical and administrative matters only.

To exercise any of these rights, please contact us using the details in Section 15. We may need to verify your identity before actioning your request, and we will respond within a reasonable timeframe.

10. Children's Privacy

Chiro Central treats patients under the age of 18, and we take extra care with the personal and health information of younger patients.

• For young children, we obtain consent to collect, use, and disclose personal and health information from a parent or legal guardian, who will typically also complete the intake and health history forms on the child's behalf and receive relevant communications about their care.
• For older children and teenagers who have sufficient understanding and maturity to make their own decisions about their healthcare (sometimes referred to as having "Gillick competence"), the practitioner will use their professional judgement, together with the young person and, where appropriate, their parent or guardian, to determine who can provide consent and receive information about the treatment.
• As set out in Section 7, records relating to patients who were under 18 during their treatment are retained until they turn 25, or for seven years from their last consultation, whichever is longer.
• Parents and guardians can exercise the rights described in Section 9 on behalf of a child patient, subject to the child's own right to privacy as they mature.

11. Cookies and Website Tracking

Our website, chirocentral.com.au, uses cookies and similar technologies to help it function properly and to help us understand how visitors use the site.

• Functional cookies: small files that allow the website to operate correctly, for example remembering your preferences as you browse.
• Analytics cookies: we use Google Analytics to collect aggregated, non-identifying information about how visitors use our website, such as which pages are viewed and how long visitors spend on the site. This helps us improve the website and the information we provide.

You can control or disable cookies at any time through your browser settings. Please note that disabling cookies may affect how parts of our website function. Our website does not use cookies to serve targeted advertising, and we do not currently use any other tracking or advertising pixels.

12. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices, the services we offer, the systems we use, or our legal obligations. Where we make material changes, we will update the "Last Updated" date below and, where appropriate, notify you directly or via a notice on our website. We encourage you to review this policy periodically to stay informed about how we handle your information.

13. How to Make a Complaint

If you have any concerns about how Chiro Central has handled your personal or health information, we would like the opportunity to address it directly. Please contact us in the first instance using the details in Section 15, and we will investigate your concern and respond as promptly as possible.

If you are not satisfied with our response, or you would prefer to raise the matter with an independent regulator, you have the right to lodge a complaint with the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC), which is the independent authority responsible for privacy regulation in Australia:

Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC)
Website: www.oaic.gov.au
Phone: 1300 363 992

14. Contact Us

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, or would like to exercise any of your privacy rights, please get in touch:

Chiro Central
455 Pacific Hwy, Crows Nest NSW 2066, Australia
Email: thechirocentral@gmail.com
Phone: +61 451 226 451
Website: chirocentral.com.au

Last Updated: 18/08/2026