Deleting your data

If you run a dental practice: stop practOS receiving messages

1. In practOS, go to Settings, then Messaging.
2. Choose Disconnect next to the WhatsApp number or Instagram account.

practOS deletes its access token for that number or account straight away and receives nothing more from it. Your existing conversations stay in practOS, read-only, because they may form part of your patients’ records.

You can also remove practOS’s access from Meta’s side: for WhatsApp, in your Meta Business settings under Integrations; for Instagram, in the Instagram app under Settings, then Apps and websites.

If you run a dental practice: delete what practOS holds

An administrator of the practice can email [privacy email address] from the practice’s registered email address, saying what to delete: for example, all messages received through WhatsApp or Instagram, a single conversation, or everything practOS holds for the practice. We’ll check the request comes from the practice, reply within [5] working days, and confirm in writing when it’s done, within [30] days. The practice decides whether patient records it’s required to keep may be deleted.

If you’re a patient, or messaged a practice

If you’ve messaged a dental practice that uses practOS by WhatsApp, Instagram or text, the practice is in charge of those messages and of your record. Please ask the practice to delete them, or to stop messaging you. Replying STOP to a text or WhatsApp message stops messages on that channel straight away.

You can also email us at [privacy email address] with the practice’s name and the phone number or Instagram account you used. We’ll pass your request to the practice straight away and let you know what happens. Some health records have to be kept for a set time by law; if that applies, the practice will tell you.

What gets deleted

The messages, photos and files, contact names and numbers, and conversation records concerned, from practOS’s database. Backups are overwritten within [35] days. Our audit trail keeps a note that a deletion happened, and when, but not what was deleted.

Meta keeps its own copies of WhatsApp and Instagram messages under its own terms; to ask Meta about those, use the privacy settings in WhatsApp or Instagram.