Privacy policy

Two things: an appointment request you choose to send, and usage data about how the site is visited. There are no accounts, no online payments and no online booking on this site.

The request form on the Contact page asks for your first and last name, email address and phone number, whether you have received care from Rae before, the type of care you are looking for, a brief note on what you would like help with, whether you want to be considered for the waitlist, and any questions for Rae. Two checkboxes ask for your agreement before the form can be sent.

Rae reviews each request personally to decide whether an appointment is currently available and appropriate, then contacts you with booking instructions or about the waitlist. That is the only use. We do not use requests for marketing, and we do not sell or share them.

The brief note may include health information. Keep it short; the form says so. Detailed health history belongs in your appointment, not on this website.

Your request is stored in this website's content management system, which Rae signs in to review. The server is managed by our website provider. Rae records the status of your request there and may add short scheduling notes. Clinical records are kept in Jane, the practice management system used for appointments, which is separate from this website and has its own privacy terms. This website does not connect to Jane.

When you send a request, the site emails a notification to the practice and a confirmation to your email address. Neither email contains your answers; both say only that a request was received. These messages are delivered by Mailgun, an email service that may process them outside Canada.

We keep appointment requests for as long as we need them to manage scheduling and keep an accurate record of requests received. You can ask us to delete yours at any time.

The request form is protected by Google reCAPTCHA, which checks that a submission comes from a person rather than automated software. To do that, Google collects information about your device and how you interact with the page. This use is subject to Google's Privacy Policy and Terms of Service.

We use Google Analytics 4, loaded through Google Tag Manager, to understand how the site is used: which pages are viewed, how far people scroll, which links to other sites are clicked, how visitors arrive, and the type of device and browser used.

The settings we chose for a health website: Google signals is off, so nothing is linked to Google account profiles or used to personalise advertising; event data is kept for 14 months; and Google Analytics 4 does not store IP addresses. Analytics never receives anything you type into the appointment request form.

Google processes this data on its own servers, including in the United States. You can block it with the Google Analytics opt-out browser add-on or by blocking cookies in your browser. The site works without them.

• A session cookie set by the website itself so the request form can be submitted safely. It is removed when you close your browser.
• Google Analytics cookies, with names beginning _ga, which recognise a returning browser.
• A Google reCAPTCHA cookie used for spam detection on the contact page.

We do not use advertising cookies.

Resource pages link to research, patient information and directories on other websites. Their privacy practices are their own.

Google, for analytics and spam protection, and Mailgun, for email delivery, may process information outside Canada, mainly in the United States, where it is subject to that country's laws. Alberta's Personal Information Protection Act asks us to tell you this and to name someone who can answer your questions about it. That person is the owner of Loam & Moss, reachable through the Contact page.

Under Alberta's Personal Information Protection Act you can ask what personal information we hold about you, ask us to correct it, and withdraw your consent to its use. Withdrawing consent for an appointment request means we cannot act on that request. You can also ask us to delete a request.

Write to us through the Contact page. We respond within the time the Act allows. If you are not satisfied with our answer, you can contact the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Alberta at oipc.ab.ca.

We update this page when the site's data practices change and revise the date at the top. Questions about anything here can go through the Contact page.