Effective 17 October 2026. SonoCare Healthcare Ltd (RC 1555036), House 3, Road 1, Eliminigwe Housing Estate, Phase 3, Elelenwo, Port Harcourt, Rivers State, is the data controller for the SonoCare app and the sonocare.com.ng website. This policy explains what we collect, why, who we share it with and your rights under the Nigeria Data Protection Act 2023 (NDPA). Our Data Protection Officer can be reached at hello@sonocare.com.ng.
1. What we collect
| Category | Examples | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Account | Name, phone, email, password (stored only in scrambled form), referral code | You |
| Health profile | Date of birth, sex, blood group, genotype, height, weight, allergies, long-term conditions, emergency contact | You |
| Family members | The same details for dependents you add | You |
| Clinical records | Symptoms, consultation notes, vital signs, diagnoses, medical reports, prescriptions, lab orders and results, referrals | You and your providers |
| Messages | Chat messages and files shared in a request | You and your providers |
| Location | Your GPS position or chosen address when you book or request an ambulance | Your device, with permission |
| Payments | Wallet balance and transactions, payment references. Card details go to Paystack, not to us | You, Paystack |
| Insurance | HMO name, policy number and expiry | You, your HMO |
| Device | Push-notification token, app version, IP address, error logs | Your device |
| Ratings | Stars and comments you give and receive | You and providers |
| Identity photos | A photo of your face, and of each family member you book for. It is also your profile photo | You |
| Readings and photos | Vital signs you enter; heart rate measured with your phone camera (the video is analysed on your phone and never sent to us); photos of your own devices, sent to read the numbers and not kept after the reading | You, your device |
| Website messages | Name, email, phone and message sent through the contact form on sonocare.com.ng | You |
For partners we also collect licences and their expiry dates, ID documents, qualifications, CAC details and RC numbers for facilities, an optional Tax Identification Number, premises details, live location while on a job, and bank details for payouts. Where BVN checks are switched on, we keep only the last four digits of your BVN, the name it returns and an irreversible fingerprint of it, never the full number.
Video and voice consultations run through DefComm Meet, with Jitsi as a back-up, and are not recorded by SonoCare.
2. Why we use it, and on what legal basis
| Purpose | Legal basis (NDPA) |
|---|---|
| Create your account and provide the services you book | Performance of our contract with you |
| Process health information so providers can care for you | Your explicit consent, and medical purposes by professionals bound by confidentiality |
| Dispatch an ambulance to your location | Your consent, and vital interests where you cannot consent |
| Take payments, hold them until you confirm, refund and pay providers | Contract; legal obligation for financial records |
| Validate HMO cover and submit claims | Your consent and contract |
| Send service messages by SMS, email, push and in-app notification | Contract |
| Check that the person receiving care is the person booked for, and prevent impersonation and misuse of benefits | Performance of our contract with you, and legitimate interests |
| Prevent fraud, secure accounts, keep audit logs of record access | Legitimate interests and legal obligation |
| Improve the service using aggregated, de-identified statistics | Legitimate interests |
| Send promotions | Only with your consent; you can opt out at any time |
We do not sell your personal data or use your health data for advertising.
3. Who sees your information
- Your providers. A clinician can open your health record only while they are handling an active request for you, and every opening is logged. A pharmacy sees the prescription you order against. The doctor who ordered your lab tests sees the results. On some plans, providers see a private name instead of yours, and you get an alert whenever your record is opened.
- Your photo is seen by the providers handling your requests (current ones, and for 30 days after) so they can check who they are caring for, and by SonoCare staff who review photos and reports of misuse. It is not used for automated facial recognition.
- Your contact details stay private. Providers never see your phone number or email address, and you never see theirs. Calls and messages go through the app, and phone numbers, email addresses and messaging links typed into chat are hidden. Riders, sample collectors and ambulance crews see your name and the address or location they need for the job. SonoCare staff can see contact details to support you.
- People you choose. When you share a referral note, anyone with the link can open that note. Our public document check shows only the document type, issuer, date and the first letter of the patient's name. When you book for a family member, you see their records and reports.
- Your HMO, for covered services, receives the details it needs to settle claims.
- Service providers working for us under contract, who may use the data only to provide their service to us: Paystack (payments, payouts and confirming bank account names), Prembly (checking providers' BVN and TIN, when switched on), Termii (SMS and verification codes), Brevo (email), Google Firebase (push notifications), Hostinger (servers), DefComm Meet and Jitsi (calls), Anthropic (the SonoCare Assistant help chat, and reading the numbers on photos of your devices) and OpenStreetMap (maps in the app). On our website, Google Maps loads only if you choose to show the clinic map.
- Authorities, where the law requires it, such as a court order or a public-health reporting duty.
4. Transfers outside Nigeria
Some of the providers above process data outside Nigeria, including Hostinger's servers, Google, Brevo and Anthropic. We transfer personal data abroad only as the NDPA allows, with contractual and technical safeguards that give your data an adequate level of protection.
5. How long we keep it
| Data | Kept for |
|---|---|
| Medical records (notes, reports, prescriptions, results) | The period required by Nigerian law, including after the account is closed |
| Payment and wallet records | The period required for financial and tax records |
| Account and profile | While your account is open, then deleted or anonymised within 90 days unless needed for the records above |
| Chat messages | With the medical record of the request |
| Identity photos | While your account is open; replaced photos and reports of misuse as long as needed to deal with a case, and as the law requires |
| Verification codes | 10 minutes |
| Partner verification documents | While the partner is active, then as long as the law requires |
| Record-access audit logs | As long as needed to investigate misuse, and as the law requires |
6. How we protect it
Data travels over encrypted connections, passwords are stored as one-way hashes, and staff and providers see only what their role needs. Access to medical records is logged. If a breach puts your data at risk, we will notify the Nigeria Data Protection Commission within 72 hours of becoming aware of it, and tell you without delay where the risk to you is high.
7. Your rights
Under the NDPA you can:
- see the data we hold about you and get a copy (you can download your health record as a PDF in Profile);
- correct inaccurate data (most of it you can edit in the app);
- ask us to delete your data, except medical and financial records we must keep by law;
- restrict or object to some uses, and withdraw consent at any time (this does not affect care already given, and some services cannot work without it);
- receive your data in a portable format and ask us to send it to another provider.
Send requests to hello@sonocare.com.ng. We will reply within 30 days. If you are not satisfied, you can complain to the Nigeria Data Protection Commission.
8. Children and family members
SonoCare accounts are for adults. Information about a child or other dependent is provided by their parent, guardian or authorised family member, who exercises their rights on their behalf. Adult dependents may contact us directly to access or correct their own information.
9. Storage on your device
The app stores your sign-in session and recently viewed records on your device so it works with a weak connection. Signing out removes your session from the device. Neither the app nor our website uses advertising or tracking cookies.
10. Changes
We will tell you in the app before material changes to this policy take effect.
11. Contact
Data Protection Officer, SonoCare Healthcare Ltd, House 3, Road 1, Eliminigwe Housing Estate, Phase 3, Elelenwo, Port Harcourt, Rivers State · hello@sonocare.com.ng · 0703 419 9466 · 0903 714 1533