Privacy Policy
Last updated: 10 October 2026
Medicare Skin & Hair Clinic (“Medicare”, “we”, “us”, or “our”) respects your privacy and is committed to protecting the personal and health information you share with us. This Privacy Policy explains what information we collect through this website (medicareskinandhairclinic.com) and our clinics, how we use it, and the choices you have. By using our website or services, you agree to this Policy.
This website takes no payments — there is no card or UPI form on it. If you use the AI photo tool, your photograph goes to an outside AI service to be described, is not stored by us, and the description is not a diagnosis — only a registered doctor can give you that. We never publish your photograph, your story or a review from you. A photograph of a child may be sent only by a parent or guardian. You can ask us to show, correct or delete your details, and a data complaint is answered within one month. The detail is in sections 4 and 8.
1. Information We Collect
- Personal details — your name, phone number, email, age, gender, and location, when you book an appointment, fill a form, or contact us.
- Health information — details about your skin, hair, or nail concerns, your medical history, and photographs you choose to share for consultation or for the AI photo description tool on this website. Under the Information Technology (Reasonable Security Practices and Procedures and Sensitive Personal Data or Information) Rules, 2011, rule 3(iii) and 3(v), your health condition and your medical records — including a photograph of an affected area of skin or scalp — are sensitive personal data, and we treat them as such.
- Communication data — messages you send us via WhatsApp, phone, or the website contact form.
- Website usage — basic, non-identifying technical information (such as browser type and pages visited) that helps the website function and improve.
- Payment information — none is collected here. This website does not take payments. There is no payment gateway, no card form and no online checkout on it. You pay at the branch counter, where a receipt is issued. We never ask for your card number, UPI PIN, OTP or bank password on this website, over WhatsApp or over the phone — if anyone does so in our name, it is not us; please tell us at once on the numbers below.
2. How We Use Your Information
We use your information only for the purpose for which you gave it (rule 5(5) of the 2011 Rules), namely:
- To schedule and manage your appointments and consultations.
- To provide diagnosis, treatment, and follow-up care — which a doctor does, in person or on a consultation, not software.
- To respond to your enquiries and send appointment-related communication.
- To keep the medical records we are required to keep as a registered establishment.
- To meet legal and regulatory obligations.
What we never do with it. We do not use your photographs, clinical images, treatment details or anything you tell us for advertising. We do not publish before-and-after photographs. We do not ask you for a review or testimonial, and we do not publish patient reviews or testimonials on this website. We do not use your photograph to train any artificial-intelligence model. We do not sell, rent or share your information for anyone else's marketing. This is both our policy and our duty under the National Medical Commission's Guidelines on Ethical Advertising and Public Communication dated 6 October 2026 (clauses 6.1, 6.2, 8.1(v) and 3.2 Explanation V) — and under those Guidelines your consent would not make such use permissible even if you offered it.
3. Medical Information & Confidentiality
Any health information you share is treated as confidential and is accessed only by our qualified doctors and authorised clinical staff for the purpose of providing care. We do not disclose your medical information to anyone outside the clinic except with your consent or as required by law.
4. The AI Photo Description Tool on This Website
This website offers a tool where you may upload a photograph of the affected skin, scalp or nail and receive a plain-language description of what is visible in that photograph. Please read this section before using it.
- It is not a diagnosis. It is not a treatment plan, not a prognosis and not a prescription. Under the Telemedicine Practice Guidelines 2020 (clause 5.4), a platform based on artificial intelligence or machine learning is not allowed to counsel a patient or prescribe any medicine. Under section 34 of the National Medical Commission Act, 2019, only a registered medical practitioner may form a clinical opinion. So the software describes; a doctor decides.
- The output is marked as AI-generated wherever it is shown, as clause 7.2(c) of the NMC Guidelines of 6 October 2026 requires.
- Where your photograph goes. When you press the analyse button, the photograph is transmitted to an external artificial-intelligence service — the Claude API operated by Anthropic — which generates the description. That transmission is a disclosure to a third party, and it happens only because you have ticked the consent box with this fact stated on it (rule 6(1) of the 2011 Rules).
- We do not store the photograph. It exists only for the duration of that one request and is not saved to our servers or to any gallery. Since October 2026 the tool also no longer keeps a copy of your photograph on your own phone.
- What does reach us. The name, mobile number, age, gender and concern you enter, together with the description produced, reach our clinic desk as an enquiry, so that our staff can contact you and so that a doctor can take it forward. That is the whole point of the tool, and it is stated on the consent box before you upload anything.
- A photograph is not an examination. Skin, hair and nail problems frequently need to be examined in person — dermoscopy, trichoscopy, scraping or a biopsy. Clause 3.5.1 of the Telemedicine Practice Guidelines 2020 requires a doctor not to proceed where physical examination is critical. You may be asked to come to a branch instead, and that is for your safety.
- Please do not take any medicine on the strength of this description.
- Children. A photograph of anyone under 18 may be uploaded only by that child's parent or guardian, who must confirm this before uploading. See section 9 below.
- You do not have to use it. It is not a condition of booking an appointment or of being treated (rule 5(7) of the 2011 Rules). You may ask us to delete what was sent to our desk — see section 8.
5. How We Share Information
We do not sell or rent your personal information. We may share it only:
- With our doctors and staff who are involved in your care, across our branches.
- With the service providers who make this website and its features work, strictly to provide that service and nothing else. As at the “Last updated” date at the top of this page, they are: Vercel (website hosting), Anthropic (the Claude API, which generates the AI photo description described in section 4), and WhatsApp (Meta) where you choose to message us on it. We name them because rule 5(3) of the 2011 Rules requires you to be told who the intended recipients are. This list describes our recipients on that date — it is a statement of where things stood then, not a permanent guarantee that it will never change; section 12 explains how this Policy is updated.
- On that date the list contains no payment gateway, advertising network, data broker or customer-tracking service, because this website uses none.
- When required by law, court order, or to protect the safety and rights of our patients and staff.
6. Data Security
We are required to follow reasonable security practices under section 43A of the Information Technology Act, 2000 and rule 8 of the 2011 Rules. In practice: this website is served only over HTTPS; the photograph you upload for the AI description is not written to any public folder, any shared link or any gallery, and is not retained on our servers after the request; your clinical record at the branch is accessible only to the doctors and authorised clinical staff involved in your care. No method of transmission over the internet is completely secure, so we cannot promise absolute security — but if anything does go wrong, please tell us using section 13 and we will act on it.
7. Cookies & Analytics
This website uses minimal, essential technology to function correctly. It does not run advertising pixels or remarketing tags, and it does not build an advertising profile of you. A few preferences may be stored on your own device by your browser. Third-party services we rely on (such as embedded maps or messaging) may set their own cookies under their respective policies. We do not collect sensitive personal data without your knowledge.
8. Your Rights, and How to Complain
You may ask us to show you the personal information we hold about you, to correct it, or to delete it. You may also withdraw your consent to the AI photo description at any time (rule 5(7) of the 2011 Rules). Write or call using section 13 below.
Grievance Officer. Rule 5(9) of the 2011 Rules requires us to designate a Grievance Officer for complaints about your personal information. Send such a complaint to the Grievance Officer at the postal address, phone number or email in section 13, marking it “Grievance Officer — personal data”. We will redress it within one month of receiving it, as that rule requires. If you prefer, you may hand the complaint in at any branch reception and ask for an acknowledgement.
One thing we must be straight with you about deletion. As a registered private medical care establishment in Andhra Pradesh we are obliged to keep the medical records of patients we have treated (rule 14 of the Andhra Pradesh Allopathic Private Medical Care Establishments (Registration and Regulation) Rules, 2007) and to produce them to the authorities when required. So if you have been treated by us, we can delete the enquiry details you sent through this website, but we cannot delete your clinical record on request. We would rather tell you that plainly than promise a deletion we are not allowed to perform.
Coming in 2027. The Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 and the Digital Personal Data Protection Rules, 2025 bring in a fuller set of duties — a standalone itemised consent notice, a published route for exercising your rights, a grievance system with a stated response period, and verifiable parental consent for a child's data. Most of those provisions commence on 13 May 2027; the Grievance Officer route above and the consent box on the AI tool are already built in the shape they require, and we will publish the rest before that date. The one-month commitment above applies now and does not wait for 2027.
9. Children’s Privacy
Treatment for a person under 18 is provided only with the consent and involvement of a parent or guardian. Under clause 3.2.3 of the Telemedicine Practice Guidelines 2020, a minor may be consulted only along with an adult whose identity is established.
For the AI photo description tool specifically: if the age entered is under 18, the tool asks for a separate confirmation that the person submitting the photograph is the child's parent or guardian, and will not proceed without it. Please do not upload a photograph of someone else's child.
We do not profile children, we do not track their behaviour and we do not direct any advertising at them. When section 9 of the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 commences (13 May 2027) it will require verifiable parental consent, which is a stronger test than a confirmation box; we will upgrade the tool to meet it. We do not knowingly collect information about a child from anyone other than a parent or guardian.
10. How Long We Keep Things
- A photograph uploaded to the AI tool — not retained on our servers at all; it exists only for that one request.
- An enquiry you send us (name, mobile, concern, and the AI description where there was one) — recorded in the patient record system our clinic group uses, tagged to the branch you chose, and kept there as part of that record. It is not deleted automatically. You may ask us to delete the enquiry details you sent through this website; section 8 tells you how to ask, and what we are and are not able to delete.
- Your clinical record, once you are a patient — kept for the period that medical-record law requires of us, as explained in section 8.
We do not keep sensitive personal data for longer than the purpose for which it may lawfully be used.
11. Third-Party Links
Our website may contain links to third-party sites or services (such as Google Maps, WhatsApp, or app stores). We are not responsible for the privacy practices of those third parties.
12. Changes to This Policy
We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. The “Last updated” date above reflects the latest version. Continued use of our website or services after changes means you accept the updated Policy.
13. Contact Us
For any questions about this Privacy Policy or your information — and for a complaint to the Grievance Officer under section 8 — contact us:
Medicare Skin & Hair Clinic
Head Office: Beside Maganti Theater, Kaikalur, Andhra Pradesh 521333
Phone: 9141 247 777, 08677 223344
Email: nagaraj@medicare247.in