English 
1. Introduction
When you consult us or begin treatment, you trust us with information that is personal and often sensitive. This policy explains what we collect about patients and prospective patients, what we do with it, who can see it and what your rights are. It is written in line with the Turkish Personal Data Protection Law No. 6698 (KVKK) and its secondary legislation.
Health information stays confidential at Istanbul Vita. We use it where there is a real need, and only the people who need it for their work can access it.
2. Information We Collect
What we hold about you depends on your treatment and on how you get in touch. It can include:
- Your name, contact details and date of birth
- A passport or identity number, where we need it to register you or to meet a legal duty
- Your medical history, previous treatments or procedures, medication and allergies
- Details of your hair and scalp condition, our assessments and treatment recommendations
- Appointment, treatment and follow-up records
- Photographs you send or take with us to help assess and plan your treatment
- Payment and billing details, where a payment is made
- Messages and other information you share with our medical or patient care teams
We try to ask only for what a given service or purpose actually requires.
3. How We Collect It
Most of the information comes from you: through our website forms, by phone, by email or WhatsApp, and in person at the clinic. During treatment, our medical team also creates records such as examination notes and treatment plans. When you fill in a form on our website, the details you enter, including any campaign information attached to your visit, are saved in our clinic’s CRM system.
4. Health Information
Information about your health is special category personal data under Turkish law, and the law gives it extra protection. In practice this covers your medical history, past procedures, medication, allergies, hair and scalp condition, treatment records and recovery.
We need this information to understand what you are looking for, judge whether a treatment suits you, plan your care and look after you during recovery and follow-up.
Under Article 6 of KVKK, health data may be processed by people who are bound by a duty of confidentiality, or by authorised institutions, for purposes such as diagnosis, treatment, care and the planning and management of health services. For anything outside those purposes, we ask for your explicit consent first.
5. Photographs and Medical Images
Photographs are often an important part of a consultation, especially when we assess hair loss, talk through options or check how your treatment is progressing. Any photo you provide for these reasons is treated as confidential patient information.
Using a photo for your care is not the same as using it to promote our services. We will not use your photographs or medical images in marketing, on social media or in advertising unless you have given your separate, explicit consent for that specific use. You can withdraw that consent at any time. Sending us a photo for a consultation does not give us permission to publish it.
6. Why We Use Your Information
We use patient information to:
- Review and answer your consultation request
- Assess whether a procedure is suitable for you and prepare your treatment plan
- Arrange appointments and carry out treatment
- Keep proper treatment records and provide aftercare and follow-up
- Answer your questions and requests
- Handle payments, billing and other administrative work
- Meet our legal and regulatory obligations
- Protect the health and safety of our patients
For ordinary personal data, such as contact details, we rely on the grounds in Article 5 of KVKK, mainly that processing is necessary to provide the service you asked for, to meet a legal obligation, or to establish, exercise or defend legal claims. We do not use your information for an unrelated purpose unless the law allows it or you have agreed.
7. Who Can See Your Information
Not everyone at the clinic can open your file. Access is limited to members of our medical, patient care and administrative teams who need particular information to do their job, and it depends on their role.
We may share information with service providers, such as IT, communication and software suppliers, and with professional advisers, but only when it is needed for the service they provide and the law permits it. We may also disclose information to public authorities when the law requires or allows us to.
We do not sell patient information.
8. Confidentiality and Security
Patient information is accessed and discussed only for legitimate professional reasons. We use organisational and technical measures to protect it against unauthorised access, loss, alteration and disclosure.
No online system is completely secure, so we cannot promise absolute protection. What we can promise is that we take reasonable steps to keep your records safe. If a breach affects your data, we will notify you and the Personal Data Protection Board as KVKK requires.
9. International Patients and Transfers Abroad
Many of our patients live outside Türkiye. However, Istanbul Vita does not transfer personal or health data to systems or service providers outside Türkiye as part of the data processing activities covered by this policy.
Where the use of a third-party service may involve data processing outside Türkiye, this will be handled in accordance with the applicable requirements of KVKK and the relevant legal safeguards.
Being an international patient does not lower the level of protection your information receives.
10. How Long We Keep Information
We keep information only as long as we have a reason to. That may be to continue your care, to meet legal and regulatory requirements, or to protect our legal rights. The period depends on the type of information and why we collected it.
Medical and treatment records are kept for the period required by Turkish health legislation.
We do not currently have a fixed retention period for enquiry details, such as contact form submissions or WhatsApp messages from people who do not go on to become patients. This information is kept only for as long as reasonably necessary for the purpose for which it was collected, or as required by applicable legal and regulatory obligations.
When there is no longer a reason to keep information, we delete, destroy or anonymise it.
11. Your Rights
Article 11 of KVKK gives you the right to:
- Find out whether we process your personal data
- Ask for information about it if we do
- Learn why we use it and whether we use it for that purpose
- Know which third parties, in Türkiye or abroad, receive your data
- Ask us to correct data that is incomplete or inaccurate
- Ask us to delete, destroy or anonymise your data where the legal conditions are met
- Ask us to tell third parties who received your data about any correction or deletion
- Object to a result that is against you and arises solely from automated analysis
- Claim compensation if you suffer harm because your data was processed unlawfully
Some requests can be limited by law. For example, we may have to keep certain medical records for a legally required period even if you ask us to delete them.
12. Contacting Us and Making a Request
If you have a question about how we handle your information, or you want to use any of your rights, write to us:
Istanbul Vita
Küçükbakkalköy Mah. Dilek Sabancı Cad. No:4, 34750 Ataşehir / İstanbul, Türkiye
Email: info@istanbulvita.com
We may need to confirm who you are before we share information, so that it reaches only you or someone you have authorised. We reply within 30 days of receiving your request. The response is free of charge, although a fee based on the Board’s tariff may apply if the request requires additional cost. If you are not satisfied with our answer, or we do not reply in time, you may complain to the Personal Data Protection Board (KVK Kurulu) within the periods set by law.
13. Updates to This Policy
Our services and the way we handle information can change, and so can the law. When that happens we will update this policy, and the date at the top will show when it was last revised.
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