This policy explains how ELAVIA Global International Patient Care ("ELAVIA Global", "we", "us") handles your personal information when you use our website or contact us to plan treatment in Türkiye. If anything here is unclear, please ask us.
1.Information we collect
We only ask for what we need to understand your enquiry and help plan your care. Depending on how you contact us, this may include:
- Contact and identification details — your name, email address, phone or WhatsApp number, country of residence, preferred language and, when travel is being arranged, the details needed for bookings (such as the name on your passport and your travel dates).
- Consultation and health information — the treatment you are interested in, a general outline of your medical history, any medications or allergies you choose to mention, photos (for example of the treatment area), and any scans, X-rays or records you decide to send us.
- Communication records — the messages you send us and our replies, and notes or summaries of calls.
- Technical information — basic data your browser sends when you visit the website, such as IP address, device and browser type, and pages viewed.
2.How we collect it
We collect information directly from you when you:
- submit the consultation form on this website;
- message us on WhatsApp or send us an email;
- call us, including calls answered by our phone assistant, Aria;
- share photos, scans or documents with a coordinator.
Some technical information is collected automatically when you use the website, through server logs and any analytics or cookies described in section 11.
3.How we use it
We use your information to:
- reply to your enquiry and answer your questions;
- share your case with suitable independent partner clinics so they can assess it and prepare a treatment plan and quote;
- coordinate practical arrangements such as appointments, airport transfers, hotel stays and interpretation;
- stay in touch after your treatment, including passing follow-up questions and photos to your treating clinic;
- keep the website secure and understand, in general terms, how it is used;
- meet our legal, accounting and regulatory obligations and deal with any disputes.
We do not use your health information for any purpose unrelated to coordinating your care.
4.Independent healthcare providers
ELAVIA Global is a coordination service, not a hospital or clinic. The clinics and physicians we introduce you to are independently operated. When they receive your information to assess or treat you, they act as separate data controllers, under their own privacy policies and legal duties.
Each clinic is responsible for its own clinical records, including consultation notes, test results and treatment records. Requests about those records should be made to the clinic directly; we can help you reach the right contact.
5.Sensitive & health data
Information about your health is special-category (sensitive) data under both the GDPR and Türkiye's KVKK. We only process it with your explicit consent, which you give when you choose to send it to us so we can help plan your care. You can withdraw that consent at any time (see section 14). Withdrawing does not affect what was done before, but it may mean we can no longer help with your case.
Please send only what is necessary for an initial assessment — for example, recent photos of the treatment area or a relevant scan. Please do not upload full medical records through the website. If a clinic needs more detailed records, your coordinator will explain how to share them.
6.Phone, WhatsApp & AI-assisted communication
Some of our phone and messaging communication is handled with the help of an AI assistant named Aria. Aria may:
- ask for and note basic details about your enquiry, such as your name, contact details and the treatment you are interested in;
- route your call or message to a human coordinator;
- prepare a written summary of the conversation so a coordinator can follow up without asking you to repeat yourself.
Aria is an administrative tool. It does not give diagnoses, medical opinions or treatment advice, and it cannot confirm whether a treatment is suitable for you — only a qualified clinician can do that.
Calls are recorded or transcribed only where you have been told about this at the start of the call and, where the law requires it, you have agreed. If you would prefer to speak only with a human coordinator, or not to be recorded, just say so, or contact us by email instead.
7.Service providers
We use third-party providers to run our service — for example for website hosting, email, messaging, AI and voice services, analytics and security. These providers act as our data processors: they may only use your information to provide their service to us, following our instructions and bound by confidentiality and security obligations.
We do not allow them to use your information for their own purposes.
8.International data transfers
Because we coordinate treatment in Türkiye and work with providers based in different countries, your information may be transferred to and processed in Türkiye, the United States and other countries where our service providers operate. These countries may not offer the same level of data protection as the country where you live.
Where the law requires it, we rely on a lawful transfer mechanism — such as standard contractual clauses, an adequacy decision, or your explicit consent — and take reasonable steps to keep your information protected.
9.We do not sell your information
We do not sell, rent or trade your personal information, and we do not share it with third parties for their own advertising.
10.Marketing
We only send you marketing messages — such as news or offers — if you have separately agreed to receive them. Agreeing is never a condition of getting help with your enquiry.
You can opt out at any time by using the unsubscribe link in an email, replying "STOP" on WhatsApp, or writing to us at [email protected].
12.Data retention
We keep personal information only as long as we need it for the purposes in this policy, including to meet legal, accounting and reporting obligations and to handle any disputes.
[Data retention periods — e.g. enquiries that do not proceed; coordination records for patients who travel; call recordings and transcripts; marketing consent records.]
When information is no longer needed, we delete or anonymise it.
13.Data security
We use reasonable technical and organisational measures to protect your information, such as access controls, encrypted connections and working with reputable service providers. Only people who need your information to help you have access to it.
No website, messaging system or storage method is completely secure, so we cannot guarantee absolute security. If you think your information has been put at risk, please contact us straight away.
14.Your rights
Depending on where you live, data protection law — including the EU and UK GDPR and Türkiye's KVKK — gives you rights over your personal information. These include the right to:
- be told how your information is used, and ask for a copy of it;
- ask us to correct information that is inaccurate or incomplete;
- ask us to delete your information, or to restrict how we use it;
- object to certain uses, including marketing;
- receive information you gave us in a portable format, where this applies;
- withdraw your consent at any time, where we rely on consent;
- find out which third parties your information has been shared with, and ask that corrections or deletions be passed on to them;
- complain to a data protection authority — for example your local supervisory authority in the EEA, the Information Commissioner's Office in the UK, or the Personal Data Protection Authority (KVKK) in Türkiye.
To use any of these rights, contact us as described in section 20. We may need to confirm your identity before acting on a request, and we will reply within the time limits set by applicable law.
15.EEA & UK
If you are in the European Economic Area or the United Kingdom, we rely on the following legal bases to process your personal information:
- Steps you ask us to take / contract — to respond to your enquiry and coordinate the services you request;
- Explicit consent — for health information and other special-category data, and for marketing;
- Legitimate interests — to run, secure and improve our service, where your rights do not override those interests;
- Legal obligation — where the law requires us to keep or disclose information.
Data controller: ELAVIA Global International Patient Care, Istanbul, Türkiye — [email protected].
EU / UK representative: [EU / UK representative, if required]
16.Türkiye
Where the Turkish Personal Data Protection Law No. 6698 ("KVKK") applies, we process your personal data in line with its principles, including lawfulness and fairness, accuracy, processing only for specific purposes, keeping data to what is necessary, and retaining it only as long as needed.
Health data is special-category personal data under KVKK. We process it only with your explicit consent, or where another condition in the law allows it, and we apply extra safeguards to it. Partner clinics in Türkiye process health data under their own obligations as healthcare providers.
You can exercise your rights under Article 11 of KVKK by contacting us as described in section 20.
17.Children's privacy
Our service is intended for adults. We do not knowingly collect information directly from anyone under 18. Enquiries about treatment for a minor must be made by a parent or legal guardian, who remains responsible for the minor's information and decisions. If you believe a child has sent us information without a guardian's involvement, please contact us and we will delete it.
18.Third-party websites
Our website may link to other websites and services, such as WhatsApp, social networks or partner clinic pages. We are not responsible for how those sites handle your information, so please read their privacy policies before sharing your details with them.
19.Changes to this policy
We may update this policy from time to time, for example when our services or the law change. The "Last updated" date at the top shows when it was last revised. If we make significant changes, we will take reasonable steps to let you know, such as a notice on the website.
20.Contact
For any privacy question, or to exercise your rights, email [email protected] with the subject line "Privacy Request — ELAVIA Global".
- Brand: ELAVIA Global
- Data controller: ELAVIA Global International Patient Care
- Registered address: Istanbul, Türkiye
- Email: [email protected]
- Phone / WhatsApp +1 647 223 2147
- Patient coordination: Istanbul, Türkiye