Therapy now is a booking system designed to enable users to book therapy sessions online with registered counsellors calendars. The system uses Google's Online calendar features via API to reserve sessions with therapists. This consent to access individual Google calendars is provided securely through each therapist Gmail account whereby access to their personal calendars is granted to the therapynow.co.za website.
At no stage is calendar access made public and at any stage authorized therapists may disengage their Google Calendar features to manually manage bookings.
TherapyNow.co.za on booking collects availability times from the assigned therapist's calendar and updates their calendar in available slots programmatically and transparently to the end-users that simply receive standard meeting requests from Google in their inbox.
Users of the system warrant that they are aware that TherapyNow performs calendar management functions on their behalf and provide explicit consent for TherapyNow.co.za to so.
Accounts created by users of TherapyNow.co.za are subject to our terms and conditions outlined here. No personal information is stored or required outside of the minimal information to manage the intended account for the purpose of making bookings.
In order to manage registered users sessions TherapyNow.co.za makes use of text cookies to maintain logged in and logged out states as well as user behaviour on this website. If you would like to know more about how TherapyNow uses cookies, please click here.
South African Protection of Private Information
The Protection of Personal Information (PoPI) Act, No. 4 of 2013 promotes the protection of personal information by public and private bodies, Therapy Now included. The Act was signed into law by the President of South Africa on 19 November 2013 and published in the Government Gazette Notice 37067 on 26 November 2013. Once the Act is made effective, organisations will be given a year’s grace period to comply with the Act, unless this grace period is extended as allowed by the Act. The President has however signed a proclamation declaring some parts of the Protection of Personal Information Act No 4 of 2013 effective from 11 April 2014.
In Therapy Now context, the PoPI Act significantly affects the manner in which we collect, store/archive, use, share and destroy personal information of our patients, employees, service providers and alumni. The Act will balances the legitimate needs of Therapy Now to collect and use personal information for business and strategic purposes against the right of individuals (patients, employees, service providers and alumni) to privacy. The Act aims to achieve this balance through introduction of the following eight (8) Conditions and Key Requirements:
- Accountability
Therapy Now must ensure that conditions contained in the Act are fully complied with. - Processing Limitation
Therapy Now patients, employees, service providers and alumni may only be processed in a fair and lawful manner. - Purpose Specification
Personal information of Therapy Now patients, employees, service providers and alumni may only be processed for specific, explicitly defined and legitimate reasons. - Further Processing Limitation
Personal information of Therapy Now patients, employees, service providers and alumni may not be processed for a secondary incompatible purpose. - Data Quality
Therapy Now must ensure that the personal information of its patients, employees, service providers and alumni is kept reliable, accurate and up to date. - Openness
Therapy Now patients, employees, service providers and alumni should be aware that their personal information is being collected. - Security Safeguards
Personal information of Therapy Now patients, employees, service providers and alumni must be protected through the use of reasonable technical and organizational safeguards. - Data Subject Participation
Therapy Now Ltd patients, employees, service providers and alumni may request the correction/ deletion of any personal information held about them that may be inaccurate or misleading.
In response to the above-mentioned requirements of the POPI Act, the Centre should align its processes and systems to position itself to ensure full compliance with the Act. To facilitate and enhance achievement of this important mandate, the Centre has created the Directorate: Institutional Information under the Technical Director Advisory, Assurance Services and Registrar Governance Portfolio. The Directorate will be engaging with all functional units within the Centre to assist them in aligning their processes and systems with the PoPI requirements.
Lastly, any PoPI related queries, questions and/or complaints can be kindly directed to the:
| Directorate: | Accounts |
| Nikki Andrews | |
| Contact Number: | 0826892247 |
| E-mail Address: | [email protected][therapynow.co.za] |
General Data Protection Regulation
Passed in 2016, the new General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is the most significant legislative change in European data protection laws since the EU Data Protection Directive (Directive 95/46/EC), introduced in 1995. The GDPR, which becomes enforceable on May 25, 2018, seeks to strengthen the security and protection of personal data in the EU and serve as a single piece of legislation for all of the EU. It will replace the EU Data Protection Directive and all the local laws relating to it.
We support the GDPR and will ensure all Therapy Now services comply with its provisions by May 25, 2018. Not only is the GDPR an important step in protecting the fundamental right of privacy for European citizens, it also raises the bar for data protection, security and compliance in the industry.