How Dental Atlas World handles the information you choose to share.

Your shortlist stays in your browser

Your shortlist is saved in your browser's local storage. Atlas does not receive it. You can clear it on the shortlist page or by clearing this site's browser storage. Clearing browser data on one device does not affect another device.

Messages between you and a clinic

When you message a clinic through Atlas, we store your email address and the text of the messages in the thread so the clinic can read and answer them, and so you can return to the conversation later. Your consent for that specific purpose is captured on the compose screen at the moment you send, and the time you accepted it is recorded with the thread, in line with the Data Privacy Act of 2012.

Message bodies are deleted 6 months after a thread closes. There are no attachments. Only clinics that have confirmed a working contact route can be messaged, so your text never travels to a listing that nobody is reading.

Signing in uses a one-time link sent to your email address. There is no password to choose, store, or lose.

Do not send health information

Atlas messaging and forms are not a patient portal. Do not enter a patient name, symptoms, a diagnosis, medical or dental records, images, prescriptions, medication details, or treatment instructions. Ask process questions here, and share health information only through a secure route agreed with the clinic or your treating professional.

Demand counts hold no identity

When someone tries to contact a clinic that is not reachable through Atlas yet, we count the attempt so the clinic can be told how many patients looked for it. The record holds a one-way session hash, the clinic, the page, and the time. It holds no name, no email address, no message text, and no health information. The same browser is counted once per clinic per day.

Information you submit through a form

A correction report, a clinic claim, a concierge request, or an affiliate signup contains only the fields shown beside that form, plus the consent you tick and the time you ticked it. Each submission is saved so a person can review and answer that specific request. A submission never changes a public profile on its own, and one consent never carries over to another purpose.

A clinic claim is checked against the clinic itself before any badge or fact changes. An affiliate record never changes a clinic's ranking, verification decision, or publication status.

Where the information is kept

Threads, messages, consent records, claims, corrections, and affiliate records are held in a managed database with access controls that keep each patient to their own threads and each clinic to its own inbox. Notification and reply emails are sent through the transactional email systems Project Gateway operates for Atlas. Those emails carry the message and the secure link, nothing else.

Direct clinic contact and external links

When you open a clinic website, email address, phone route, or a map link, you leave Atlas and deal directly with that clinic or service. Their privacy practices apply to whatever you send there. Atlas does not control an external site simply because a profile links to it.

Retention and privacy requests

Shortlist data stays in your browser until you remove it. Message bodies are removed 6 months after a thread closes. Other submitted records are kept for as long as the purpose of the request, plus any security, correction-history, or legal recordkeeping need that applies to it.

To ask about access, correction, or deletion of information tied to your email address, use the correction form. Enter "Dental Atlas World privacy request" as the clinic name and describe the request without including health information. Requests may need identity confirmation and are reviewed against the recordkeeping needs above.