This Data Processing Agreement (“DPA”) forms part of the agreement between Jonathan Walsh, trading as TCM Diet Tool (“TCM Diet Tool”, “Processor”, “we” or “us”) and the practitioner, clinic or other organisation using TCM Diet Tool (“Practitioner”, “Controller” or “you”).
This DPA applies where TCM Diet Tool processes personal data on behalf of the Practitioner in connection with use of the TCM Diet Tool service (“Service”).
By creating an account and accepting this DPA, the Practitioner agrees to these terms.
1. Purpose of this agreement
TCM Diet Tool enables practitioners to enter information derived from their own clinical assessment and use that information to generate dietary guidance for their clients.
Some of this information may constitute personal data and special category health data.
Where the Practitioner determines the purpose for which their client's information is processed, the Practitioner generally acts as the Controller and TCM Diet Tool generally acts as the Processor.
This DPA sets out the parties' respective responsibilities for that processing.
Nothing in this DPA relieves either party of responsibilities that apply directly to it under applicable data protection law.
2. Details of the processing
For the purposes of Article 28 of UK GDPR, the processing covered by this DPA is described as follows.
Subject matter
Processing client information submitted by the Practitioner for the purpose of operating TCM Diet Tool and generating practitioner-support dietary guidance.
Nature and purpose
The processing may include receiving, transmitting, analysing, organising, transforming and returning clinical information in order to:
assist with TCM pattern-related processing;
produce clinical and dietary strategy information;
generate dietary guidance;
perform editorial processing of generated content; and
return the resulting information to the Practitioner.
Duration
Processing takes place when the Practitioner submits client information to the Service and continues for the period necessary to provide the requested functionality, subject to any limited retention that may occur within authorised infrastructure providers under their applicable data-processing and security arrangements.
TCM Diet Tool does not intentionally maintain a server-side library of submitted client clinical cases or generated client reports.
Categories of data subjects
The data subjects are primarily:
clients or patients of the Practitioner; and
where applicable, other individuals whose information the Practitioner lawfully submits through the Service.
Types of personal data
Depending upon what the Practitioner enters, information may include:
symptoms;
clinical observations;
tongue and pulse observations;
TCM patterns or assessments;
dietary information;
allergies and intolerances;
practitioner notes; and
other health-related information entered by the Practitioner.
This information may constitute special category health data.
TCM Diet Tool is designed so that the separate client-name field is not intentionally included in clinical information sent to the AI processing service.
3. Controller instructions
The Controller instructs TCM Diet Tool to process client personal data only as necessary to provide the Service and perform the processing described in this DPA.
TCM Diet Tool will process client personal data only on documented instructions from the Controller, including with respect to international transfers, unless processing is required by applicable law.
The Controller's use and configuration of the Service, submissions through the Service, this DPA and other written instructions agreed between the parties constitute documented instructions.
If TCM Diet Tool believes that an instruction infringes applicable data protection law, it will inform the Controller where legally permitted.
4. Controller responsibilities
The Practitioner, as Controller, is responsible for:
complying with applicable data protection and confidentiality requirements concerning their clients;
ensuring that personal data submitted to the Service has been collected and is processed lawfully;
identifying an appropriate lawful basis for processing personal data;
identifying an appropriate condition for processing special category health data where required;
providing appropriate privacy information to clients;
ensuring that they have the necessary authority to instruct TCM Diet Tool to process the information;
entering only information reasonably necessary for the intended purpose;
avoiding unnecessary names, contact details, addresses or other direct identifiers in clinical free-text fields;
maintaining the security and confidentiality of their TCM Diet Tool account;
reviewing generated output before using or providing it to a client; and
appropriately storing, securing, retaining and deleting any report that they download, print or otherwise retain.
The Controller remains responsible for determining whether its use of TCM Diet Tool is appropriate for its particular professional, regulatory and legal circumstances.
The Controller must only provide TCM Diet Tool with personal data that it is legally entitled to instruct TCM Diet Tool to process.
5. Processor responsibilities
TCM Diet Tool will:
process client personal data only in accordance with documented instructions from the Controller, except where otherwise required by applicable law;
ensure that persons authorised to process personal data are subject to appropriate confidentiality obligations;
implement appropriate technical and organisational measures having regard to the nature and risks of the processing;
take appropriate measures to assist the Controller with data-subject rights where required;
provide reasonable assistance with applicable security, personal-data-breach and data-protection-impact-assessment obligations;
maintain appropriate information concerning its processing where required by applicable law;
use subprocessors in accordance with Section 8; and
delete or return personal data at the end of the relevant processing relationship as described in this DPA, subject to applicable legal obligations and authorised provider retention.
6. Confidentiality
TCM Diet Tool will ensure that any person authorised by it to process client personal data is subject to an appropriate duty of confidentiality.
Access to personal data will be limited to those who require such access for operation, security, support or maintenance of the Service.
TCM Diet Tool will not intentionally disclose client clinical information to third parties except:
as necessary to provide the Service through authorised subprocessors;
on the Controller's documented instructions; or
where disclosure is required by applicable law.
7. Security
TCM Diet Tool will maintain technical and organisational measures appropriate to the nature of the processing and risks to individuals.
Current measures include:
authenticated practitioner accounts;
encrypted HTTPS connections;
database row-level security and restricted permissions;
separation of practitioner account data from the clinical-processing pathway;
data minimisation within clinical-processing requests;
omission of the separate client-name field from clinical AI requests;
secure management of API credentials and backend secrets;
London-hosted clinical backend infrastructure;
controls intended to avoid intentional long-term storage of clinical cases within the TCM Diet Tool account database; and
restricted access to practitioner account information.
The security measures may evolve as the Service develops, provided that the overall level of protection is not materially reduced without appropriate justification.
8. Subprocessors
The Controller gives TCM Diet Tool general written authorisation to use subprocessors where reasonably necessary to provide the Service.
For processing involving client clinical information, the current principal infrastructure/service providers include:
Google Cloud
Google Cloud hosts the TCM Diet Tool clinical backend.
The current backend is hosted in the London (europe-west2) region.
OpenAI
OpenAI provides API-based processing used for specific parts of report generation, including clinical-language and editorial processing.
Relevant clinical information may be transmitted to OpenAI.
TCM Diet Tool does not intentionally include the separate client-name field in clinical AI requests.
OpenAI API requests used by TCM Diet Tool are configured with store: false, although limited provider-side retention may still occur under OpenAI's applicable API data-retention arrangements.
Other providers
TCM Diet Tool also uses providers including Supabase, Stripe and Resend for account authentication/database functionality, subscription/payment processing and signup email delivery respectively.
Under the current Service architecture, client clinical case information is not intentionally sent to Stripe or Resend or stored in the Supabase account database as part of report generation.
Where another provider processes Controller personal data on behalf of TCM Diet Tool and therefore acts as a subprocessor for the relevant processing, TCM Diet Tool will ensure that appropriate contractual data-protection obligations apply.
TCM Diet Tool remains responsible for its obligations concerning the subprocessors it appoints as required by applicable data protection law.
The Controller may object on reasonable data-protection grounds to a new subprocessor that will materially affect the processing of client personal data. If the parties cannot reasonably resolve the objection, the Controller may stop using the affected part of the Service.
9. Changes to subprocessors
TCM Diet Tool may change its subprocessors as the Service develops.
Where a new subprocessor will materially affect processing of client personal data, TCM Diet Tool will make reasonable efforts to provide appropriate notice before the new subprocessor begins relevant processing, where required by applicable law.
The Controller is responsible for keeping its contact information current so that relevant notices can be received.
10. International transfers
Client personal data may be processed in countries outside the Controller's country or outside the United Kingdom.
TCM Diet Tool will not intentionally initiate a restricted transfer of Controller personal data except:
as necessary to provide the Service in accordance with this DPA and the Controller's instructions; and
where an appropriate transfer mechanism or other lawful basis for the transfer applies where required.
Depending on the relevant provider and destination, appropriate arrangements may include adequacy regulations, recognised data-privacy frameworks, Standard Contractual Clauses, the UK International Data Transfer Addendum or another legally recognised mechanism.
The Controller authorises the international processing and transfers inherent in the subprocessors and infrastructure disclosed under this DPA, subject to the safeguards required by applicable law.
11. Data subject requests
If TCM Diet Tool receives a request directly from an individual concerning client personal data that it processes on behalf of a Controller, TCM Diet Tool will, where appropriate:
direct the individual to the relevant Controller; or
notify the Controller of the request,
unless prohibited from doing so by law.
Taking into account the nature of the processing, TCM Diet Tool will provide reasonable assistance to the Controller through appropriate technical or organisational measures to help the Controller respond to valid requests concerning data-subject rights.
TCM Diet Tool will not independently determine the merits of a request where the Practitioner is the Controller unless required to do so by law.
12. Personal data breaches
If TCM Diet Tool becomes aware of a personal data breach affecting client personal data processed on behalf of a Controller, TCM Diet Tool will notify the affected Controller without undue delay, where required by applicable data protection law.
Where reasonably available and relevant, the notification will provide information to help the Controller understand:
the nature of the breach;
the categories of information affected;
the likely consequences; and
measures taken or proposed to address or mitigate the breach.
TCM Diet Tool will provide reasonable assistance to enable the Controller to meet applicable breach-assessment and notification obligations.
13. DPIAs and regulatory assistance
Taking into account the nature of the processing and the information reasonably available to it, TCM Diet Tool will provide reasonable assistance to the Controller with:
data protection impact assessments;
security-of-processing obligations;
consultations with supervisory authorities where required; and
other relevant obligations concerning processing carried out through the Service.
14. Return and deletion of client data
TCM Diet Tool is designed so that client clinical cases and generated reports are not intentionally maintained as a persistent server-side clinical-record database.
Where client personal data remains under TCM Diet Tool's control following termination of the processing relationship, TCM Diet Tool will, at the Controller's choice and where technically and legally applicable, delete or return that personal data unless applicable law requires continued storage.
Deletion obligations do not require TCM Diet Tool to delete information that:
it is legally required to retain; or
remains temporarily within an authorised provider's systems in accordance with applicable contractual retention, security or backup arrangements, provided that the information remains appropriately protected and is not used for an incompatible purpose.
Reports already downloaded, printed or otherwise retained by the Practitioner are under the Controller's control and are the Controller's responsibility.
15. Audit and compliance information
TCM Diet Tool will make available information reasonably necessary to demonstrate compliance with the data-processing obligations applicable under this DPA and Article 28.
Where reasonably necessary, the Controller may request additional information concerning relevant security and data-processing arrangements.
Where the information reasonably available does not provide sufficient assurance and an audit is legally justified, TCM Diet Tool will allow and contribute to reasonable audits or inspections relating specifically to processing performed on behalf of the Controller.
Any audit must, where legally permissible:
be proportionate to the nature and risk of the processing;
provide reasonable advance notice;
minimise disruption to the Service;
protect the confidential information and security of other users; and
be limited to information relevant to the Controller's processing.
16. Instructions that may breach data protection law
If TCM Diet Tool considers that a Controller instruction infringes applicable data protection law, TCM Diet Tool will inform the Controller without undue delay where legally permitted.
TCM Diet Tool may suspend the affected processing while the parties clarify or correct the instruction where continuing the processing would create a material data-protection risk.
17. Relationship with the Privacy Policy and Terms of Service
This DPA concerns processing carried out by TCM Diet Tool on behalf of the Practitioner as Controller.
TCM Diet Tool's Privacy Policy separately explains how TCM Diet Tool handles information for which it acts as controller, including practitioner account information.
The Terms of Service govern the broader commercial and operational relationship between TCM Diet Tool and the Practitioner.
If there is a conflict between this DPA and the Terms of Service concerning TCM Diet Tool's obligations when processing Controller personal data, this DPA will take precedence to the extent of that conflict.
18. Duration and termination
This DPA takes effect when the Practitioner accepts it and continues while TCM Diet Tool processes personal data on the Practitioner's behalf.
Relevant provisions concerning confidentiality, deletion, regulatory cooperation and other obligations that by their nature must continue after termination will remain effective for as long as necessary.
19. Changes to this DPA
TCM Diet Tool may update this DPA where reasonably necessary to reflect:
changes to applicable data protection law;
changes to the Service or processing architecture;
changes to subprocessors;
improvements to security or privacy arrangements; or
changes to TCM Diet Tool's business structure.
Where a change materially affects the Controller's rights or the processing of client personal data, TCM Diet Tool will provide reasonable notice where required.
20. Contact
Questions concerning this DPA or TCM Diet Tool's processing of client personal data should be sent to: