Messaging Privacy Policy
How we handle the messages you send us on Facebook Messenger, Instagram Direct and WhatsApp. Last updated 29 July 2026.
1.1 This Messaging Privacy Policy explains how Wickersley Audiology Ltd (“we”, “us”, “our”) handles the information you share when you message us on Facebook Messenger, Instagram Direct or WhatsApp.
1.2 We operate an automated messaging assistant (an AI receptionist) that answers enquiries and helps you book or manage hearing-care appointments on these channels. Wickersley Audiology Ltd is the data controller for the information you share with us here.
1.3 This policy sits alongside our main Privacy & Cookies Policy; for messages you send us on the channels above, this policy applies.
2.1 The messages you send us and our replies, including the time each message was sent.
2.2 Your public profile basics as provided by the messaging platform — typically your display name and a platform-specific user ID. We do not receive your platform password or your contact list.
2.3 Details you choose to give us in conversation — for example your name, phone number, email, preferred appointment time, or the reason for your enquiry.
2.4 Please do not send sensitive medical details through social-media messaging. If a clinical matter needs discussing, we will arrange a secure and appropriate way to do so.
3.1 To read your message and generate a helpful, relevant reply; to answer questions about our services, opening hours, location and pricing; and to help you request, hold, confirm, change or cancel an appointment.
3.2 To pass your enquiry to a member of our team when a person is needed, and to keep a record of the conversation so we can follow up and provide continuity of service.
3.3 Our lawful bases under UK GDPR are our legitimate interests in responding to and supporting people who contact us, and — where you ask us to arrange an appointment — taking steps at your request prior to entering into a service.
4.1 Replies are generated with the help of an artificial-intelligence language model provided by OpenAI. Your message content is sent to that provider solely to generate a response.
4.2 No decision producing a legal or similarly significant effect is made about you without human involvement, and a member of our team can take over the conversation at any point.
5.1 Meta Platforms — the messaging platform you contacted us on delivers your message to us and our reply back to you.
5.2 Our AI provider (OpenAI) — processes message content to generate replies, acting on our instructions.
5.3 Our booking system (Cliniko) — where you ask us to arrange an appointment, the relevant details are recorded there.
5.4 We do not sell your information and we do not use it for third-party advertising.
6.1 We keep our copy of a conversation only while it is active. When a conversation has had no new message for 21 days it is automatically and permanently deleted from our systems.
6.2 The messaging platform you contacted us on (Messenger, Instagram or WhatsApp) keeps its own copy of the thread in your and our inboxes under its own retention policies — that copy is outside our control and is not affected by our deletion.
7.1 Under UK data protection law you have the right to access the information we hold about you, to have it corrected or erased, to object to or restrict our processing, and to data portability. To exercise any of these, contact us at [email protected].
7.2 You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) at ico.org.uk.
8.1 We use appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect the information we hold, including restricted access and encrypted connections. No method of transmission over the internet is completely secure, so we cannot guarantee absolute security.
8.2 We may update this policy from time to time; the date below shows when it last changed.
9.1 Wickersley Audiology Ltd · Unit 4, Hastings Court, 246–256 Bawtry Road, Wickersley, Rotherham, South Yorkshire, S66 3JY · [email protected]. ICO registration: ZB372207.
Last updated: 29 July 2026
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