Summary
We take privacy seriously — perhaps more than most directories — because the people who use this site may be queer, trans, in the closet, in unsafe regions, or otherwise have legitimate reasons to want their use of an LGBTQ+ healthcare directory to remain private. This policy explains what we collect, why, how we use it, and how you can control it.
If you only read one section, read What we don't do.
1. Who this policy applies to
This policy applies to anyone who:
- Visits lgbtdocs.com or any subdomain.
- Creates an LGBTDocs account.
- Submits a healthcare provider listing.
- Claims an existing listing as their own practice.
- Reports an issue with a listing.
- Subscribes to our newsletter, if applicable.
- Contacts us by email or any other channel.
Healthcare providers listed in our directory have a separate set of rights and processes — see Healthcare provider listings.
2. What we collect
Information you give us directly
Information collected automatically
Information we do not ask for
- We never ask for your sexual orientation, gender identity, HIV status, or any other special-category personal data as a condition of using the site.
- We never ask why you are searching for a particular provider.
- We never ask for your date of birth other than to confirm you are an adult, where required by law.
Information we infer
3. How we use your information
We use the information we collect to:
- Operate the directory — show you search results, let you save providers, and log you in.
- Verify provider submissions and claims. This is a manual review.
- Communicate with you about your account, your submissions, or your reports.
- Send the LGBTDocs newsletter only if you have opted in — and you can unsubscribe any time.
- Detect and prevent fraud, spam, scraping, and abuse.
- Comply with legal obligations.
- Improve the product — understand which features get used, where the search falls short, and what providers are missing from the directory.
We use aggregated, anonymised analytics, for example, “10,000 people searched for trans-affirming care in Mumbai this month”, to inform editorial and product decisions. Aggregated data cannot identify individuals.
4. Legal basis for processing
If you are in the EU/UK under GDPR or India under the DPDP Act 2023, we rely on these legal bases:
You have the right to object to processing based on legitimate interests — see Your rights.
5. Sensitive data — special protections
The fact that someone uses LGBTQ+-specific services may itself be considered sensitive in many jurisdictions. We treat this seriously.
We deliberately do not collect information about your sexual orientation, gender identity, HIV status, or other sensitive characteristics about you as a user.
If you, as a healthcare provider, voluntarily mention your own identity, for example, “I am a queer-identifying GP”, in your listing, that information is being processed because you have made it manifestly public — but you can edit or remove it at any time.
Search activity caveat: when you search the directory, the search query is processed by our servers. If you search for “trans-affirming endocrinologist,” that query touches our infrastructure.
- We do not log search queries against your account by default.
- We do not share search queries with third parties for advertising.
- We use aggregated, de-identified search data only for product improvement.
- We allow you to clear your local search history any time.
If you would prefer to use the site without any account-level personalisation, you can browse without logging in. Most search functionality is available to anonymous users.
We use cookies and similar technologies. There are three categories:
Strictly necessary
Functional
Analytics
We do not use cookies or tags to sell your personal data to data brokers.
A cookie banner appears on your first visit if you are in a region requiring opt-in, such as the EU/UK, and lets you accept or reject non-essential cookies.
We share information only in these circumstances:
We do not:
- Sell your personal data to anyone, ever.
- Share your personal data with advertisers, data brokers, or marketing networks.
- Share information about your searches, account, or activity with third parties for their own purposes.
8. International data transfers
LGBTDocs operates globally. Our servers are hosted in Singapore and United States cloud infrastructure regions, with content delivery nodes worldwide.
If you are in the EU/UK, data transferred outside the EEA is protected by Standard Contractual Clauses or an adequacy decision, where required.
If you are in India, we comply with cross-border transfer rules under the Digital Personal Data Protection Act 2023 as they come into effect.
You can request a copy of the safeguards we use for cross-border transfers by emailing privacy@hyphias.com.
9. How long we keep data
If you delete your account, all account-linked data is deleted within 90 days, except where we are legally required to retain it, for example for fraud investigation or legal hold.
Account deletion page: https://hyphias.com/delete-account.
10. Your rights
Depending on where you live, you have some or all of these rights:
- Access — get a copy of the personal data we hold about you.
- Correction — fix inaccurate data.
- Deletion — have your data removed.
- Object/Restrict — stop us processing your data for certain purposes.
- Portability — get your data in a machine-readable format.
- Withdraw consent — where we rely on it (e.g. newsletter).
How to exercise your rights
Email us at privacy@hyphias.com with the subject line "Data Rights Request." We will verify your identity before processing the request to protect your security. We do not charge a fee for reasonable requests.
11. Healthcare provider listings
Our directory includes information about healthcare providers. This information is either:
- Submitted by the provider or their authorised staff.
- Submitted by a user of the site.
- Collected from publicly available sources (websites, public registers).
If you are a provider and wish to claim, edit, or remove your listing, please email providers@hyphias.com.
We process provider business data based on our legitimate interest in providing a public directory of LGBTQ+ affirming healthcare, which is in the public interest.
12. Children's privacy
LGBTDocs is intended for use by adults. We do not knowingly collect personal data from children under 18 (or the age of majority in your jurisdiction) without parental consent. If we learn we have collected data from a child without verification, we will delete it immediately.
13. Security
We use industry-standard security measures:
- HTTPS encryption for all data in transit.
- Encrypted password hashing.
- Regular security audits and dependency updates.
- Strict access controls for our staff.
However, no method of transmission over the internet is 100% secure. We cannot guarantee absolute security.
14. What we don't do
Our Non-Negotiables
No Data Sales
We will never sell your personal data, search history, or contact info to anyone.
No Ad Networks
We do not use Facebook Pixels or other invasive ad-network tracking.
No Shadow Profiles
We don't buy data from third parties to build secret profiles of our users.
No Targeted Ads
We don't use your medical interests to target you with ads on other sites.
15. Changes to this policy
We may update this policy occasionally. If we make material changes, we will notify you by email (if you have an account) or by a prominent notice on the homepage.
16. How to contact us
For privacy-related questions or to exercise your rights, email our Privacy Officer:
Data Protection Officer
Address: 160 Robinson Road, #14-04, Singapore Business Federation Center, Singapore 068914