Safe Zindagi Privacy and Data Use Policy
Client confidentiality is extremely important at Safe Zindagi. Our trained management, outreach and counselling staff carefully support clients and handle their information securely. Our clinical partners are NABL accredited (National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories) and follow the 2019 HIV Act to protect people living with HIV and the health information of people accessing HIV services. Here we explain what data may be collected on Safe Zindagi, how we use that data, and our protocol for protecting the confidentiality of our clients and their information.
What information do I share with Safe Zindagi?
You may share some information with Safe Zindagi’s to assess your HIV and sexual health needs and book services at our clinical partners.
Assessing your HIV and sexual health needs
Use the risk assessment to receive HIV and sexual health service recommendations that are tailored to your needs. The risk assessment will ask questions about your HIV testing history, current HIV status and several factors that may impact your sexual health needs, like gender, sexuality, and several HIV risk factors. This information provides you with the most relevant service recommendations. We routinely use this data to help us ensure we reach all populations and improve our outreach and service delivery. Your responses on the risk assessment are kept confidential and are not shared with the Safe Zindagi client support team and not shared with our clinical partners.
Booking services
Use the appointment booking feature to find HIV and sexual health services near you and book an appointment for a day and time that is convenient for you. Using Safe Zindagi you can book services at private labs, private providers, or receive support to be linked to public services. When you book an appointment, you may share your GPS location (optional), age (in years), name or nickname, phone number, and the services you would like to receive during your appointment. Your phone number enables us to provide pre and post-test HIV counseling and help link you to any follow-up prevention or treatment services. If you enable location sharing with Safe Zindagi, our clinical service offerings will be prioritized to show you the nearest services first. If you refuse to share your location, you can simply choose your city and neighborhood where you would like to find service offerings.
What information does Safe Zindagi share with clinical providers?
Safe Zindagi shares some information with clinical providers to help facilitate your appointment. This includes the information you enter to book an appointment on Safe Zindagi like your name/nickname, phone number, services requested, date and time of appointment. This data is used to confirm your appointment and to verify when you reach the clinic or when the home collection staff reach you. Your responses on the risk assessment are not shared with clinics.
What information do clinical partners share with Safe Zindagi?
To facilitate secure data sharing and reporting, Safe Zindagi signs a memorandum of understanding (an “agreement“) with all our clinic partners which binds the clinics to maintain absolute confidentiality and treat client data with extreme sensitivity. This agreement allows us to share your appointment information with clinical partners and for clinical partners to securely report to Safe Zindagi when you access services and report your diagnostic test results. The test results are secured at a password protected system and only accessed by a data manager for reporting and improving our services. It also ensures that we reach populations most in need of HIV services and ensure that follow-up prevention, testing and treatment services can be offered to every client requesting services on Safe Zindagi. You can choose whether to share your diagnostic test results with Safe Zindagi counselor during the post-test counseling call, which will help the counselor to provide you relevant services and recommendations.
Added safeguards
- Safe Zindagi online client support team, including outreach workers and counselors, are trained in client confidentiality and have signed and are bound to a code of ethics
- Clinical partners follow national accreditation for laboratory services and 2019 HIV Act
- Clinical partners have signed an agreement with Safe Zindagi that allows for data security and data sharing with Safe Zindagi to protect clients of Safe Zindagi
- Safe Zindagi have trained clinical partners on the provision of stigma-free services for Safe Zindagi clients, including for key populations
- Safe Zindagi collects feedback from clients about the clinical services they receive through Safe Zindagi and shares this anonymous feedback with clinical partners to improve their service delivery
- Risk assessment responses are not shared with clinics
- HIV test results are not shared from clinical partners to Safe Zindagi client support team (outreach workers and counselors) Clients can choose whether to disclose their HIV status or HIV test results with Safe Zindagi counselors to receive support services
- Safezindagi.in uses a range of security measures to protect clients using Safe Zindagi and data stored on Safe Zindagi, including using SQL, an encrypted server, password protected user logins.
