Privacy Policy

This policy explains what data we collect, how we use it, and how a Clinic or a Patient can exercise their rights. SmileDesk is a product of Poruz Systems, based in India, and follows the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 (“DPDP Act”).

1. Roles

Under the DPDP Act, when a Patient's data is stored on SmileDesk:

• The Clinic is the Data Fiduciary — they decide what to collect and hold the primary duty of care towards the Patient.
• SmileDesk (Poruz Systems) is the Data Processor — we only handle the data on the Clinic's instructions and for the Clinic's benefit.

For our own operational data (Clinic owner's contact info, billing history, usage logs), SmileDesk is the Fiduciary.

2. What we collect

From the Clinic's staff (users of the Service)

• Account: name, username, phone, email, hashed password (argon2id).
• Sign-in metadata: IP address, session cookies (opaque; only the sha256 of the token is stored server-side).
• Actions taken in the app (audit log): who did what, when.

Patient records (entered by the Clinic)

• Identity: name, phone, alt phone, email, DOB, gender, blood group, address.
• Clinical: medical history, allergies, medications, odontogram, treatment plan, visit notes, prescriptions.
• Financial: invoices, payments, insurance claims.
• Operational: appointment history.

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• User agent, IP address, referrer, timestamps.

3. Where the data lives

All data is stored in India, on a VPS in a data centre operated in accordance with Indian data-residency norms. Backups are stored in the same region. We do not transfer personal data outside India.

4. How we use it

• To operate the Service — show a receptionist the patient list, print an invoice, send a WhatsApp reminder.
• To bill the Clinic and handle payment collection (via Poruz Pay + Razorpay).
• To provide support when the Clinic asks for help.
• To keep the Service secure — detect abuse, prevent brute-force logins.
• Aggregate statistics (never per-clinic, never per-patient) to improve the product.

We do not sell data, do not build advertising profiles, do not train machine-learning models on Clinic or Patient data.

5. Sharing

We share data only with the following categories of Data Processors, and only to the extent needed to run the Service:

• Meta (WhatsApp) — patient phone number + message body + template metadata when the Clinic sends a WhatsApp confirmation, reminder, or invoice.
• Razorpay — via Poruz Pay: the Clinic's contact info + subscription plan for billing.
• Server & DNS infrastructure providers — for delivering the app itself.

Public directory (opt-in). If a Clinic's owner or administrator switches on its public listing, the business details they enter for that purpose (clinic name, address, contact details, hours, services, and optionally the lead dentist's name, qualification and registration number) are published at smiledesk.in/dentists, where anyone — including search engines and AI assistants — can read them. No listing is created by default, the Clinic can unpublish at any time, and patient data is never published.

6. Retention

Clinic and Patient data are retained as long as the Clinic's account is active. On cancellation, data is retained for 90 days (export window) and then permanently deleted, unless the Clinic asks for immediate deletion.

Audit logs are retained per tier (Starter 30 days, Pro 1 year, Business unlimited). Sign-in metadata (IP, user agent) is retained for 30 days for abuse detection.

7. Patient rights (DPDP Act)

Under the DPDP Act, a Patient has the right to:

• Ask what personal data the Clinic holds about them.
• Ask for it to be corrected if inaccurate, updated if incomplete.
• Ask for it to be erased (subject to the Clinic's professional record-keeping obligations).
• Nominate a person to exercise these rights on their behalf.
• Withdraw consent (though this may limit the Clinic's ability to treat them).

These requests should go to the Clinic first — the Clinic is the Fiduciary. If the Clinic doesn't respond, or if the request is about SmileDesk's own handling of the data, the Patient can escalate to us at support@poruz.com.

8. Grievance officer

Under the DPDP Act, complaints about data handling can be sent to our grievance officer:

Purusothaman R.
Poruz Systems, Madurai, Tamil Nadu, India
support@poruz.com

9. Security

• Argon2id password hashing (OWASP-recommended parameters).
• TLS 1.2/1.3 for every request. HTTPS-only cookies with SameSite=Lax; Secure; HttpOnly.
• Per-tenant isolation at the database layer — every row carries tenant_id; queries enforce it.
• Session tokens are opaque; only their sha256 hash is stored server-side.
• Automated daily backups, with retention per tier.

10. Cookies

We use two first-party cookies: the session cookie (smiledesk_session) and a theme preference key (smiledesk-theme) stored in localStorage. No third-party analytics or advertising cookies.

11. Children's data

Dental clinics treat patients of all ages, including children. Under the DPDP Act, children's data (under 18) requires the guardian's consent — the Clinic obtains this at registration. SmileDesk stores this data on behalf of the Clinic and applies the same protections as adult data.

12. Changes

If we materially change how we handle data, we'll notify the Clinic owner by email and via an in-app banner at least 30 days before the change takes effect.