Privacy policy

1. Who we are

Archly is an online dental service run by Dr. Ahmed Mujtaba Ghauri, trading as Archly, based at Canal View Housing Society, Lahore, Pakistan. We are responsible for (the "controller" of) the personal information described here.

Questions or requests about your data: email info@archlyclinic.com. We aim to reply within 30 days.

2. What we collect

We only collect what we need to assess and treat you and to answer your questions:

• Smile Check: your name, email, WhatsApp number, country, age range, what you'd like to fix, your answers about braces, pain and gum health, how you'd prefer to pay, any notes you add, and 5 photos of your teeth.
• Video consultation (booked through Cal.com): your name, email, phone/WhatsApp number, the time you choose and your answers to the booking questions. During the call the dentist may make clinical notes.
• Contact form: your name, email, optional phone/WhatsApp number and country, the topic and your message.
• Treatment: dental impressions or scans, your 3D treatment plan, check-in photos, your delivery address and phone number, and records of payments and approvals.
• Messages you send us by WhatsApp or email.
• Technical data: like every website, our hosting provider records basic request data such as IP address, browser type and the pages requested, to keep the site running and secure. We use your IP address briefly to stop spam on our forms; we don't store it in our own records.

Your photos, answers about your teeth and treatment records are health data. We collect them only with your explicit consent (the boxes you tick on the Smile Check) and to provide the care you ask for.

3. Why we use it

• To check whether clear aligners or other treatment are suitable for you and tell you the result.
• To run video consultations and, for patients located in Pakistan, to issue prescriptions where appropriate.
• To design, approve, make and ship your aligners and support you during treatment.
• To reply to your messages and booking requests.
• To take payment, keep accounts and meet legal and professional record-keeping duties.
• To keep the website secure and stop spam and abuse.

Our legal bases are your consent (for health data and photos), the contract with you (to provide the service you asked for), our legal obligations (records and accounts) and our legitimate interest in running a safe, working service. You can withdraw consent at any time — this does not affect anything we did before, but we may not be able to continue your assessment or treatment without it.

We do not sell your personal information, and we do not use it for advertising profiles.

4. Who can see your information

Inside Archly: only our clinical team — Dr. Ahmed Mujtaba Ghauri (dentist) and Ihsan Mustafa Chaudhary (aligner treatment planner) — and authorised staff who need it to help you.

We use trusted service providers who process data on our behalf and only for that purpose:

• Website hosting (Vercel).
• Email (Spacemail by Spaceship, and Google for our clinic inbox and calendar).
• Appointment booking (Cal.com) and video calls (Google Meet or Cal Video).
• Messaging (WhatsApp, run by Meta) when you choose to message us there.
• Courier (DHL Express) — your name, address and phone number so they can deliver.
• A dental laboratory, if we use one to make your aligners — they receive your scans and plan, not your contact details unless needed for delivery.
• Payment providers, when you pay.

We may also share information if the law requires it, to protect someone's safety, or with your consent (for example, sending your records to your local dentist).

We never show your photos publicly. If you tick the separate, optional box allowing us to use your photos in our Results gallery, we use them without your name, and you can withdraw that permission at any time.

5. Where your data is stored

Our clinic is in Pakistan, and our service providers store data on servers in countries including the United States and the European Union. This means your information may be transferred outside your own country. Where data protection law requires it, we rely on the safeguards our providers offer for international transfers (such as standard contractual clauses).

6. How long we keep it

• Smile Checks from people who don't start treatment: deleted 12 months after the result is sent.
• Contact-form messages: deleted after 24 months unless they become part of your patient record.
• Consultation and treatment records: kept for as long as professional and legal rules require for dental records, which is usually several years after treatment ends (longer for patients under 18).
• Payment and accounting records: kept as long as tax law requires.

7. How we protect it

The website uses encrypted connections (HTTPS). Photos are reduced in size in your browser before upload and sent to a clinic mailbox that only the clinical team can open. Access to records is limited to people who need it, and our providers use industry-standard security.

No system is perfectly secure. If a breach affects your data and puts you at risk, we will tell you and the relevant authority where the law requires it.

WhatsApp and email are convenient but are not designed for medical records. Please don't send more than we ask for, and tell us if you'd prefer another way to share information.

8. Patients under 18

A Smile Check or treatment for someone under 18 must be started and agreed by their parent or legal guardian, who confirms this on the form. We don't knowingly collect data from children without that consent; if we find we have, we delete it.

9. Cookies and analytics

The Archly website itself does not set advertising or tracking cookies. The booking calendar (Cal.com) and video tools may set cookies needed for them to work. If we add website analytics (such as Google Analytics) or advertising pixels in future, we will update this policy and ask for your consent where the law requires it.

10. Your rights

Depending on where you live, you can ask us to:

• Give you a copy of the information we hold about you.
• Correct anything that's wrong or incomplete.
• Delete your information (unless we must keep it, for example as a medical record).
• Limit or stop how we use it, or object to a particular use.
• Send your information to you or to another provider in a common format.
• Withdraw any consent you gave.

Email info@archlyclinic.com — we may ask you to confirm your identity first. Exercising your rights is free and won't affect the care you receive.

If you're unhappy with how we handled your data, please tell us first so we can fix it. You can also complain to your local data protection authority — for example the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) in the UK, or the authority in your EU country. Residents of US states with privacy laws (such as California) have similar rights, and we do not sell or share personal information for targeted advertising.

11. Changes to this policy

We'll update this page when our service or the law changes, and change the date at the top. If a change significantly affects how we use data you've already given us, we'll tell you directly.