Purpose of Privacy Policy Notice

Nickila Robertsson, founder of NRQi Studio (a brand owned by Glasir Limited), is a Chinese medicine practitioner committed to protecting and respecting your privacy. Please read this privacy policy carefully, so that you can understand why and how your data is used and stored.

The processing of personal data is governed by the General Data Protection Regulation (the GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018.   This legislation will replace current data privacy law, giving more rights to you as an individual and more obligations to organisations holding your personal data.

One of the rights is a right to be informed, which means Glasir Limited has to give you more information about the way in which it uses, shares and stores your personal information. Glasir Limited has published this privacy notice so you can access this information, along with information about the increased rights you have in relation to the information it holds about you and the legal basis on which it is being used. Glasir Limited has a legal duty to protect any personal data it collects from you. Our web hosting & e-commerce packages use leading technologies and encryption software to safeguard personal data, and keep strict security standards to prevent any unauthorised access to it. This privacy notice came into effect on 1st January 2025.

Who are we? 

Glasir Limited, owner of the brand NRQi Studio, is the data controller of www.nrqistudio.com and the "we" behind the NRQi Studio brand.  This means that Glasir Limited decides how your personal data is processed and for what purposes. 

Whose information does this privacy notice apply to? 

This privacy notice applies to information Glasir Limited collects from: 

• patients
• prospective patients
• former patients
• people who subscribe to our newsletters
• visitors to our website 

What is personal data? 

Personal data relates to a living individual who can be identified from that data. Identification can be by the information alone or in conjunction with any other information in the data controller’s possession or likely to come into such possession. Examples of personal data we may hold about you include your contact and appointment details. 

Special category data is a sub-category of personal data revealing racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs, or trade union membership, and the processing of genetic data, biometric data for the purpose of uniquely identifying a natural person, data concerning health or data concerning a natural person’s sex life or sexual orientation. Examples of special category data we may hold about you include your patient notes. 

How do we process your personal data? 

Glasir Limited complies with its obligations under the GDPR by keeping personal data up to date; by storing and destroying it securely; by not collecting or retaining excessive amounts of data; by protecting personal data from loss, misuse, unauthorised access and disclosure and by ensuring that appropriate technical measures are in place to protect personal data. Your personal data is used for the purposes set out below. 

Sections 1 – 15 apply to our patients, prospective patients, former patients and visitors to NRQi Studio.

Records are stored electronically and safely through Jane which is GDPR compliant.

1. We store your name, address, telephone number and email address to make and rearrange appointments. We are unable to send or receive encrypted emails so you should be aware that any emails we send or receive may not be protected in transit. We will also monitor any emails sent to us, including file attachments, for viruses or malicious software. Please be aware that you have a responsibility to ensure that any email you send us is within the bounds of the law. 
2. We use your name, address, telephone number and email address, only if we have your explicit consent, to send you marketing materials. We are unable to send or receive encrypted emails so you should be aware that any emails we send or receive may not be protected in transit. We will also monitor any emails sent to us, including file attachments, for viruses or malicious software. Please be aware that you have a responsibility to ensure that any email you send us is within the bounds of the law. 
3. Some patients and prospective patients return pre-first appointment questionnaires or tell us about their medical conditions and medication by email or online enquiry forms. We are unable to send or receive encrypted emails so you should be aware that any emails we send or receive may not be protected in transit. We will also monitor any emails sent to us, including file attachments, for viruses or malicious software. Please be aware that you have a responsibility to ensure that any email you send us is within the bounds of the law. 
4. We keep a permanent attendance register which records all appointments for patients attending our clinic to keep a record of when you were treated for tax purposes and to secure potential evidence in the event of a criminal prosecution, civil litigation, insurance claim or complaint to my regulatory body, Acupuncture Society. 
5. We may use your date of birth to help identify patients with the same name to avoid mistakes being made as to safe and appropriate treatment, for identification purposes if referring a patient to another health practitioner, and for identification purposes if writing to a registered medical practitioner so that they correctly identify the patient. 
6. We may use your presenting complaint and symptoms reported by you for the purposes of making a full traditional diagnosis, formulating treatment strategy and treatment planning. 
7. We use any relevant medical and family history you have told us for making a full traditional diagnosis, formulating treatment strategy and treatment planning. 
8. We use your GP’s (general medical practitioner's) name and address in the event that we need to contact your GP including in an emergency and because it is a mandatory requirement in the Acupuncture Society Code of Ethics.
9. We use our clinical findings about your health and wellbeing for making a full traditional diagnosis, and formulating treatment strategy and treatment planning. 
10. We keep a record of and refer to that record of any treatment given and details of progress of your case, including reviews of treatment planning to enable us to: review the full traditional diagnosis, treatment strategy and planning; and to secure evidence in the event of criminal proceedings, civil litigation, an insurance claim or complaint. 
11. We record and use any information and advice that we have given, especially when referring patients to any other health professional, to help you to receive the most appropriate treatment and to secure evidence in the event of criminal proceedings, civil litigation, an insurance claim or complaint. 
12. We record any decisions made in conjunction with you to help you to receive the most appropriate treatment and to secure evidence in the event of criminal proceedings, civil litigation, an insurance claim or complaint. 
13. We keep accident records for any patients, visitors or staff who are involved in accidents at our clinic in accordance with UK Health and Safety legislation including the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations (RIDDOR) to comply with the law and to secure evidence in the event of criminal proceedings, civil litigation, an insurance claim or complaint. 
14. In the event of an adverse incident occurring to any of our patients we report the matter to the Acupuncture Society and our insurance company to enable the insurance company to deal with any potential claims.
15. Where relevant we maintain records of the patient’s consent to treatment, or the consent of their next-of-kin in order to be able to prove that the patient (and/or parent/guardian/next of kin) has given informed consent to treatment to secure evidence in the event of a civil claim, criminal prosecution, insurance claim or complaint.

Section 16 applies to those who complain about our services.

16.   When we receive a complaint from a person, we make up a file containing the details of the complaint. This   

           normally contains the identity of the complainant and any other individuals involved in the complaint. 

We will only use the personal information we collect to process the complaint and to check on the level of service we provide. We usually have to disclose the complainant’s identity to whoever the complaint is about. If a complainant doesn’t want information identifying him or her to be disclosed, we will try to respect that. However, it may not be possible to handle a complaint on an anonymous basis. We may need to provide personal information collected and processed in relation to complaints to the Acupuncture Society or our insurance company. 

We will keep personal information contained in complaint files in line with our retention policy. This means that information relating to a complaint will be retained for two years from closure. It will be retained in a secure environment and access to it will be restricted according to the ‘need to know’ principle. 

Similarly, where enquiries are submitted to us, we will only use the information supplied to us to deal with the enquiry and any subsequent issues and to check on the level of service we provide. 

Sections 17-18 apply to our newsletter subscribers. 

17.  We maintain and use records of subscribers to our newsletters, only with their consent, for marketing purposes. 

18.  We use a third-party provider, Mailchimp, to deliver our e-newsletters. We gather statistics around email opening and clicks using industry standard technologies including clear gifs to help us monitor and improve our  e- newsletter. For information, please see Mailchimp's Privacy Notice.

Sections 19-21 apply to our website users.

19.  When someone visits our website we use a third-party service, Google Analytics, to collect standard internet log information and details of visitor behaviour patterns. We do this to find out things such as the number of visitors to the various parts of the site. This information is only processed in a way which does not identify anyone. We do not make, and do not allow Google to make, any attempt to find out the identities of those visiting our website. If we do want to collect personally identifiable information through our website, we will be up front about this. We will make it clear when we collect personal information and will explain what we intend to do with it. 

20.  We use website cookies to improve user experience of our website by enabling our website to ‘remember’ users, either for the duration of their visit – using a ‘session cookie’ – or for repeat visits – using a ‘persistent cookie’. 

21.  We use a third-party service, Looka, to host our website. This site is hosted at www.nrqistudio.com, which is run by Looka.  We use a standard Looka service to collect anonymous information about users’ activity on the site, for example the number of users viewing pages on the site, to monitor and report on the effectiveness of the site and help us improve it.

Sharing your personal data 

Your personal data will be treated as strictly confidential, and will be shared: 

• with named third parties with your explicit consent; 
• with the relevant authority such as the police or a court, if necessary for compliance with a legal obligation to which we are subject e.g. a court order; 
• with your doctor or the police if necessary to protect yours or another person’s life; 
• with the police or a local authority for the purpose of safeguarding a children or vulnerable adults; or 
• with our regulatory body, the Acupuncture Society, or our insurance company in the event of a complaint or insurance claim being brought against me; or 
• our solicitor in the event of any investigation or legal proceedings being brought against NRQi Studio, owned by Glasir Limited. 

For further details about the situations when information about you might be shared, please see the Information Commissioner's Website.

How long do we keep your personal data? 

Your personal data  is kept no longer than reasonably necessary. We keep patient records for a period of 7 years in accordance with the Acupuncture Society's Code of Ethics.  At any time you may request that changes are made to your contact details.  After 7 years, you can ask that I delete your records if you so wish. You may do this by contacting NRQi Studio. Should I not be requested to delete your records, these may be retained indefinitely in order for us to provide a better service at a later date without having to collect personal data again. 

Your rights and your personal data 

Unless subject to an exemption under the GDPR, you have certain rights with respect to your personal data as set out below. 

• The right to request a copy of your personal data which we hold about you. 
• The right to request that we correct any personal data if it is found to be inaccurate or out of date. 
• The right to request your personal data is erased where it is no longer necessary for us to retain such data. 
• The right to withdraw your consent to the processing at any time. This right does not apply where we are processing information using a lawful purpose other than consent.
• The right to request that we provide you with your personal data and where possible, to transmit that data directly to another data controller, (known as the right to data portability), (where applicable) [This right only applies where the processing is based on consent or is necessary for the performance of a contract with you and in either case we are processing the data by automated means]. 
• The right, where there is a dispute in relation to the accuracy or processing of your personal data, to request a restriction is placed on further processing. 
• The right to object to the processing of personal data, (where applicable) [This right only applies where processing is based on legitimate interests (or the performance of a task in the public interest/exercise of official authority); direct marketing and processing for the purposes of scientific/historical research and statistics]. 
• The right to be informed if your data is lost. We shall also inform the Information Commissioner’s Office in accordance with the time limits in the GDPR. 
• The right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office. For further details about these rights please see the Information Commissioners website.

Further processing 

If we wish to use your personal data for a new purpose, not covered by this Privacy Notice, then we will provide you with a new notice explaining this new use prior to commencing the processing and setting out the relevant purposes and processing conditions. Where and whenever necessary, we will seek your prior consent to the new processing. 

Contact Details 

To exercise all relevant rights, queries of complaints please in the first instance contact us at the NRQi Studio website.

You can contact the Information Commissioners Office via their website.

By booking an NRQi Studio appointment, you agree to our Privacy Policy.