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Privacy

Privacy Policy

Effective 28 September 2026 · Last updated 28 September 2026.

This Privacy Policy explains how Animals at Work Pvt Ltd, the company that operates the Docodile platform ("Docodile", "we", "us"), collects, uses, discloses, and protects personal data in connection with the Docodile clinic-management platform and the booking pages, websites, and applications we operate (together, the "Service"). It should be read alongside our Terms of Service, of which it forms part.

1. Who this policy covers

The Service is used by two groups of people, whose data we handle differently:

2. Our role: processor vs. controller

For most patient data (medical records, prescriptions, billing, appointment history), the clinic is the data controller / data fiduciary — it decides why and how that data is handled and is responsible for obtaining any patient consent. Docodile acts as a data processor, handling that data only to provide the Service on the clinic's instructions.

For clinic-user account data and data collected directly through our own websites, Docodile is the controller.

If you are a patient and have questions about your records, please contact the clinic that treats you; they control that data. We will assist the clinic in responding.

3. Information we collect

a. Clinic account & staff data — name, email, phone, role, clinic name, and login credentials (passwords are stored only as salted hashes — never in readable form).

b. Patient data (entered by clinics, or provided by patients when booking) — name, contact details, age/date of birth, gender, and, because this is a clinical tool, health information such as complaints, diagnoses, prescriptions, procedures, investigations, and billing records. Health data is sensitive personal data and we treat it with heightened care (Section 6).

c. Images you capture or upload — clinical images and documents attached to a record, including photos taken through the phone-upload feature. We access a device camera only when you choose to capture an image, and we store images only when you save them to a record.

d. Booking data — the details a patient submits through a clinic's public booking page (name, contact, reason/service, preferred time).

e. Payment data — billing amounts and status. Card/UPI/bank details, where used, are handled by our payment providers — we do not store full card numbers.

f. Technical & usage data — IP address, device/browser type, log and diagnostic data, and usage events, collected to operate, secure, and improve the Service.

g. Cookies and similar technologies — see Section 14.

4. How we use personal data

We do not sell personal data, and we do not use patient health data for advertising.

5. Legal basis and applicable laws

We process personal data on the basis of consent and, where applicable, the legitimate uses permitted under the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 (DPDP Act). For patient data, the required consent is generally obtained by the clinic as the data fiduciary; Docodile processes it on the clinic's behalf. Where our processing is subject to other laws (for users outside India), we rely on the appropriate lawful basis under those laws.

Our processing is designed to comply with the data-protection, information-technology, and related requirements that apply to us, including:

6. Sensitive & health data

Patient health data receives extra protection: it is stored with clinic-level isolation, access is limited by role, sensitive images and records are access-controlled, and it is used strictly to provide the Service to the treating clinic. We never disclose identifiable health data for marketing.

7. AI-assisted features & automated processing

Where your clinic enables them, Docodile offers optional AI-assisted features — for example, draft patient summaries and an in-app assistant — to help clinicians document faster. Availability depends on your clinic's configuration; these features can be turned off at the clinic/deployment level.

What we minimise. Before any text is sent for AI processing, we remove direct identifiers — such as the patient's name and phone number — so they are not included in the request.

What is sent. To produce a useful result, the clinical text of the visit (such as complaints, diagnoses, and notes) is sent securely to a third-party large-language-model provider (OpenAI), solely to generate the requested output. This clinical text is inherent to what the feature does and cannot be removed while still providing it.

How it is governed. We process this data under the provider's Data Processing Addendum, on a zero-data-retention basis. The provider does not use the submitted text to train its models and does not retain it — the text is used only to generate the requested output and is not stored by the provider or used for any other purpose.

8. How we share data

We share personal data only as needed to run the Service:

We will not share identifiable patient data with other doctors, clinics, or hospitals, and we will not use it to solicit a clinic's patients.

9. De-identified / aggregated data

"De-Identified Data" means data processed to remove direct identifiers (such as names and contact details) and indirect identifiers, so that an individual cannot reasonably be identified. We apply reasonable de-identification measures and will not attempt to re-identify such data. We may use de-identified and aggregated data to operate, secure, and improve the Service, to produce aggregate, non-identifying statistics, and to promote and market the Service (for example, aggregate figures used in marketing material). We do not sell it, we do not use identifiable patient health data for advertising, and we do not use it to identify or solicit a clinic's individual patients.

10. Data storage, location & security

Data is stored on secured cloud infrastructure located in India (Mumbai). Our safeguards include:

Our own staff's access to clinical content is restricted, and is granted only where needed to provide support or resolve a fault. Actions taken within the application are recorded in an audit log.

No method of transmission or storage is completely secure, but we work to protect your data and to notify affected parties and authorities of any personal-data breach as required by law.

11. Data retention

We retain personal data for as long as the clinic's account is active and as needed to provide the Service. When a clinic's subscription ends or lapses, we keep its data in a read-only, encrypted state for a 45-day grace period, during which the clinic can export its data or reactivate. After the 45-day grace period we suspend the account and move the data to low-cost, encrypted archival storage — kept secure but no longer available for day-to-day access. Clinics may request export or deletion of their data at any time, and we delete a clinic's data on request — except for data we are required by law to retain (for example, minimum medical-record or accounting retention periods) and De-Identified Data (Section 9).

Limits on deletion. After we action a deletion, data may persist for a limited period in encrypted backups and archives before it is overwritten, and we cannot recall data already lawfully shared with a processor or required to be retained by law.

Record of erasure. When we erase personal data, we keep a minimal record that it existed, was processed, and was erased — that record contains no clinical content.

12. Communications & marketing

We send service-related (transactional) communications by email, phone, and/or SMS — these are part of providing the Service. Where you opt in, we may also send promotional communications. You can withdraw consent to promotional messages at any time by writing to hello@docodile.app, without affecting transactional messages.

13. Your rights

Subject to applicable law (including the DPDP Act 2023), you may have the right to:

Patients: direct these requests to your clinic (the controller). Clinic users: contact us (Section 18). We will respond within the time the law requires.

Make a data-rights request

14. Cookies

We use cookies and similar technologies that are strictly necessary to run the Service (e.g., to keep you logged in and secure) and, where enabled, to understand usage so we can improve. On our public marketing website (docodile.app) we use Google Analytics (provided by Google LLC, USA) to measure visitor traffic and improve the site; it sets analytics cookies and processes limited usage data such as pages viewed, referral source and approximate (city-level) location. This runs on the marketing website only — never inside the clinic app or on patient data. You can control non-essential cookies through your browser. If you block essential cookies, you may not be able to stay logged in.

15. Third-party links & services

The Service may link to, or integrate with, third-party sites and services (for example, a payment gateway). This policy does not cover those third parties; their own privacy policies govern their handling of your data, and we are not responsible for their practices. We encourage you to review them.

16. Children

Under the DPDP Act, the data of a child (a person under 18) may be processed only with the verifiable consent of a parent or lawful guardian, and may not be used for tracking, behavioural monitoring, or advertising targeted at children. Records of minor patients are held on the clinic's authority and responsibility as Data Fiduciary, and the clinic is responsible for obtaining that parental/guardian consent. We do not knowingly create accounts for children, our own websites are not directed to children, and we do not track, behaviourally monitor, or target advertising at users known to be children.

17. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy from time to time. We will post the updated version with a new "Last updated" date and, for material changes, provide additional notice.

18. Contact & Grievance Officer

For any questions, requests, or complaints about this policy or your data:

We aim to acknowledge and resolve grievances within the timelines set by applicable law.