Introduction

The Health Service Executive (HSE) owns and runs this website. The HSE needs to collect and use certain information about you when you use any of the HSE’s online services.

The HSE is committed to protecting your privacy and takes the security of your information very seriously.

The HSE aims to be clear and transparent about the information we collect about you and how we will use that information.

This policy will set out the following:

The Data Controller
The Data Protection Officer (DPO)
What Personal Data we Collect
What we use your Personal Data for
How long will we hold onto your Personal Data
Who will have access to your Personal Data
International data transfers
Your Rights
Complaints

The Data Controller

The Health Service Executive (HSE) is the Data Controller for all personal data which is collected and used by this website. A Data Controller is the legal entity which determines how and why personal data is collected and used.

The HSE’s headquarters is located at Dr. Steevens Hospital, Steevens Lane, Dublin 8, Ireland.

The Data Protection Officer (DPO)

The HSE has appointed a Data Protection Officer to oversee the HSE’s compliance with its data protection obligations. The HSE Data Protection Officer (DPO) can be contacted directly, here:

Email address: dpo@hse.ie

What Personal Data we Collect

Personal data means any information relating to you which allows the HSE to identify you, such as your name & address, contact phone numbers and email address.

Most areas of the www.hse.ie website can be accessed by you without the need for you to provide any of your personal data. Some areas, though, require you to submit your name, email address, and other contact details, for example when you use the Livechat service, order resources, make a complaint via YourServiceYourSay, order certificates online, sign up for programmes like the X-Pert Diabetes Programme or newsletters like the HSE Mental Health Connecting for Life newsletter.

The Primary Care Reimbursement Service (PCRS) manage all online and offline data for medical cards, GP Visit Cards, European Health Insurance Cards (EHIC). You can read PCRS’ privacy policy and cookie policy

The HSE may collect and use the following personal data about you:

Your name, address, contact telephone number, and email address, PPS number, date of birth, gender, Father's full name, if recorded, mother's full birth name
Your IP address
The communications you exchange with the HSE as part of signing up for a programme/newsletter, making a complaint or using LiveChat
Information about your use of this website

Web chat services on HSE.ie use cookies to make the service work properly. These are anonymous cookies that cannot track you while you use other websites. We will handle any data you share with the HSE in line with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

Cookies on the HSE website

Cookies are small files that are created and saved on your phone, tablet or computer when you visit a website. The term cookies can refer to cookies set in your web browser (e.g. Chrome, Safari, Edge, Firefox or Brave) as well as a number of similar technologies including tracking pixels/web beacons, local shared objects/flash cookies and access to device information.

They store information about how you use the website, such as the pages you visit on our website and how you interact with the content on some of those pages. If you use the social media buttons on our website and allow the cookies from the companies that own these platforms then they will collect information about you.

Cookies are not viruses or computer programs. They are very small so do not take up much space.

Read our cookies statement to find out more about cookies and how we use them.

Choose which cookies we can use when you visit our website.

What we use your Personal Data for

Any personal data we collect from you on this website will only be used by the HSE for the following purposes:

To provide you with a better customer experience by making services available online
To process a complaint
Send you a birth, death, marriage certificate
To keep our website secure
Analysis of visitor traffic to and usage of our website
To distribute various HSE newsletters and information notices regarding HSE health campaigns and promotions which the HSE feels may be of benefit to you.
To gain your feedback on this website

The HSE will not use the data we collect about you on the www.hse.ie website for any other purposes without first contacting you and seeking your consent

The HSE may use anonymised data from this website for the purposes of analysing, planning and improving the service. This anonymised data will not include any of your personal data including your IP address. You can withdraw your consent to the processing for analytics purposes at any time by going to the cookie preferences page.

How long will we hold onto your Personal Data

The HSE will only retain your personal data for as long as it is necessary to fulfil the purpose it is being processed for. All personal data collected by the HSE is retained in accordance with the HSE Record Retention Policy. The HSE Record Retention Policy is published on the HSE website at:
Record Retention Periods Policy (PDF, 379KB, 71 pages)

When the HSE no longer needs your personal data, they securely delete or destroy your personal data.

Who will have access to your Personal Data

Only HSE staff, agents and suppliers who are directly involved with the management of the www.hse.ie website shall have access to your personal data which is collected by this website.

All HSE staff, agents and suppliers which may have access to personal data shall be bound to the HSE via confidentiality agreements and are obliged to keep your personal data secure, and to use it only for the purposes specified by the HSE.

Will my personal data be transferred outside of the European Economic Area (EEA)

The HSE uses Google Analytics to collect information about your use of this website and part of this information includes your IP address which is considered personal data. However, the HSE has anonymised IP addresses for this website which means that no individual can be identified by the IP address.

The HSE does not transfer any other personal data about you outside the EEA. If the HSE decides to transfer your personal data outside the EEA they shall ensure the provisions of Chapter V of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) are complied with.

What are your Rights

Under certain circumstances, by law you have the right to

Right of access – you have the right to request a copy of the information that we hold about you.
Right of rectification – you have a right to correct data that we hold about you that is inaccurate or incomplete.
Right to be forgotten – in certain circumstances you can ask for the data we hold about you to be erased from our records.
Right to restriction of processing – where certain conditions apply to have a right to restrict the processing.
Right of portability – where certain conditions apply, you have the right to have the data we hold about you transferred to another organisation.
Right to object – you have the right to object to certain types of processing such as direct marketing.
Right to object to automated processing, including profiling – you also have the right to be subject to the legal effects of automated processing or profiling.
Right to review: in the event that the HSE’s refuses your request under rights of access, we will provide you with a reason as to why.
Withdraw your consent – where you have consented to receiving emails or newsletters you may withdraw your consent at any time

If you wish to exercise any of these rights, then please submit a request, to HSE Consumer Affairs at: www.hse.ie/eng/services/yourhealthservice/info/contact/

When submitting a request, the HSE may need information from you to confirm your identity.

Once your identity has been confirmed, the HSE will supply you with your information free of charge, however, we may charge a reasonable fee if believe your request is clearly unfounded, excessive or repetitive.

Making a complaint

In the event that you wish to make a complaint about how your personal data is being processed by the HSE, or how your complaint has been handled, you have the right to lodge a complaint directly with the Data Protection supervisory authority and the HSE Data Protection Officer:

Data Protection Supervisory Authority – (www.dataprotection.ie)

The HSE data protection officer (DPO) can be contacted directly by email at dpo@hse.ie. You can also contact our DPO offices in your area.