Chairside — Privacy Policy

Last updated: 19 October 2026

Chairside is a dental case-record tool for clinicians, published by Shivam Itankar. It handles patient photographs and clinical notes — sensitive personal data — so this policy is written to be specific about what the app holds, where it lives, and what control you and your patients have.

Who is responsible

You, the treating clinician (or your institution), are the data fiduciary for the patient records you create in Chairside. Chairside is the tool; it runs no server that stores anything and never receives a copy of your patient data. The one exception is account deletion with Sign in with Apple: the app sends a one-time Apple authorization code to a small Chairside function so Apple can revoke the sign-in. The function passes it to Apple and keeps nothing.

What the app collects

• Case data you enter: patient name, OP/registration number, age, sex, diagnosis, procedure, tooth number (FDI), clinical notes, visit stages and dates, and optionally a contact phone number for the patient or their guardian.
• Photographs you capture with the in-app camera or import from your phone.
• Follow-up dates and reminders you set for a visit.
• Your identity, if you sign in with Google or Apple: name and email address, used only to label your exports and reports. Apple may give a private relay address. The sign-in token stays on the phone (iOS Keychain; Google Play services on Android) and is never sent to Chairside.

Chairside contains no analytics SDK, no advertising, and no third-party trackers. It does not collect location, contacts, device identifiers, or usage telemetry.

Where it is stored

• On your device, as files in the app’s private storage (Android: the app’s internal files directory; iPhone: Library/NoCloud). The gallery, other apps and Google Photos cannot see them, and the phone’s own device backup is off for Chairside. They are protected by the phone’s built-in storage encryption (Android file-based encryption, iOS Data Protection).
• Photographs are never written to the device gallery and are re-encoded from pixels on capture, so no EXIF/GPS metadata is retained.
• In your own Google Drive (or iCloud Drive on iPhone), once you connect backup (see below).

Google Drive backup

Chairside asks you to connect backup when you set it up, because the phone would otherwise be the only copy of your records. For Google Drive, Chairside requests the drive.file OAuth scope only. This grants access solely to the files the app itself creates in your Drive — it cannot read or touch anything else in your Drive. Backups go to a Chairside/ folder in your Google account. Chairside keeps no copy. Disconnecting backup, or signing out, stops future uploads and revokes Chairside’s access; files already uploaded remain in your Drive under your control, unless you choose Also delete the Chairside folder when deleting your account.

On iPhone you can choose iCloud Drive instead. Photos are written to Chairside’s own folder in your iCloud Drive (Files › iCloud Drive › Chairside) under your Apple ID; Chairside receives no copy.

Reminders

If you turn on reminders, Chairside schedules notifications on the phone itself: follow-up days, cases missing details, photos not yet backed up, and the monthly log book. Nothing is sent to a server, and lock-screen text never includes a patient’s name, OP number or photo. Turn them off in Profile → Notifications.

How data moves

• Backups and any transfers use encrypted connections (TLS).
• Exports (case ZIP, log book PDF or Excel) are built on the device and saved to the phone or handed to the OS share sheet. Nothing is routed through a Chairside server.

Patient consent

Chairside does not capture patient consent. Obtain and keep photographic consent through your department’s own process, in line with India’s Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Act 2023. A patient may withdraw consent for teaching or publication at any time; you must then stop using their images for that purpose.

Your rights and controls

• Access & export: export all data you hold at any time, as a ZIP of photos plus a formatted case report (Profile → Export all my data).
• Deletion: erase every case and photo from the device in one action (Profile → Delete account). Deletion is immediate and irreversible. Signing out also erases the phone copy. You can also remove the Chairside folder from Google Drive or iCloud Drive. If you signed in with Apple, deletion revokes Chairside’s Sign in with Apple access.
• Withdraw backup: disconnect Google Drive or iCloud Drive at any time.

Children

Chairside is a professional tool used by clinicians. Where a patient is a minor, consent is obtained from a parent or guardian as it would be for any dental procedure.

Contact

Questions about this policy: shi123itankar@gmail.com.