PRIVACY POLICY: (General)

1. Policy

This Policy outlines the policy of the proprietor of mercatan in relation to the collection, use, processing, sharing, storing, and protection of your Personal Data. From time to time, we may update our Policy to reflect required changes or updates. When we do so, we will post the changes or updates in our website www.mercatan.com (“Site”) for your information and reference. If the changes or updates involve your Personal Data requiring your consent, we will obtain your consent prior to posting these changes or updates.

2. Rights as Our Member User

We are very much thoughtful of your rights under the Data Privacy Act of 2012, and that you should be the ultimate decision-maker on matters involving your Personal Information.

When you signed up to be a member of mercatan, and for as long as you are a member, you consented to, and until your membership is terminated, you continue to consent to, our collecting, processing, using, sharing, storing, and eventually destroying of your Personal Data for the purpose of providing you with the products and services you have subscribed to or may want to subscribe to as well as for other uses identified in Section 5 of this Policy.

All throughout the term of your membership to mercatan, you may at any time exercise your right to revise the Personal Data you have given, refuse access, processing, or use of your Personal Data, withdraw consent previously given to the access, processing or use of your Personal Data, or object to the same. You are aware that by withdrawing your consent, or objecting to the processing of your Customer Data, mercatan will not be able to provide you with the products and services you have registered for or may want to avail.

Information provided to you via the mercatan platform will be in clear and plain language to ensure that this information is easy to understand and access.

You have the right to seek indemnity for damages sustained, if any, due to inaccurate, incomplete, outdated, false, unlawfully obtained, or unauthorized use of your Personal Information.

Should you feel that there has been mishandling or misuse of your Personal Information, or that any of your data privacy rights have been violated, you may email us at [email protected]

3. Third Party

In order to fully comply with our obligations to our customers, we may outsource or contract the access to, processing, and use of Personal Data to third parties, such as but not limited to, our subsidiaries, affiliates, partners, third party service providers or other telecommunications operators. They may have access to Personal Data for a limited time under reasonable contractual and technical safeguards to limit their use of such information. We require them to protect Personal Data consistent with our Policy. As far as our customers are concerned, we will hold these contracted third parties liable for any breach committed by them, of the Policy, of Republic Act No. 10173 or the Data Privacy Act of 2012 (the “Act”) and its Implementing Rules and Regulations (the “IRRs”) or of other relevant laws.

4. Collection of Personal Data

As a member of mercatan, you give your express consent to our collecting and processing of your Personal Data. This consent shall remain in effect until you withdraw consent to specific activities done on your behalf, or your subscription expires, or your subscription is terminated.


Your data that we collect, process, use, and share are either “Personal Information” as defined under the Act or non-Personal Information:


I. ”Personal Information” is any information from which the identity of an individual may be reasonably and directly ascertained, or when put together with other information would directly and certainly identify an individual, such as name, gender, date of birth, address, telephone/mobile number, email address and proof of identification. It also includes information about:


a. Medical and health information;
b.  The services provided to you, such as, call/SMS details, location information, and certain
information about your rate plans and features, as required by law;
c. The location of your device whenever it is switched on, if you subscribe to location-based
services, subject to coverage limitations; and
d. Your use of our service, service experience, and other service issues to help us improve the
quality of our services, determine tailored content, and for other legitimate business purposes.


II. “Non-Personal Information” is any information that does not identify you on an individual basis, and includes statistical and analytical data, and anonymous and aggregated reports.

We may also request you to update your Personal Data at the Site www.mercatan.com from time to time. Should you be unable to supply us with the Personal Data requested for, we may be unable to provide you with products and services you wish to subscribe to, and updates on MERCATAN.COM ONLINE STORE’s latest offerings. You may also be unable to participate in our
events, promotions or other activities.

When you use our Site and electronically communicate with us, depending on your settings and with your consent, we may use cookies, web beacons, small data text files or similar technologies to identify your device and record your preferences.

5. Use of User Data

As a member of and until you terminate your membership with mercatan, you continue to consent to our using your Personal Data as follows:


We use Personal Data to:


I. Enable you to register with and be a member of mercatan;
II. Avail of the services of the Licensed Physicians;
III. Provide you with your other subscribed products and services, including customer support;
IV. Enhance your customer experience and identify tailored content to meet your preferences and needs;
V. Communicate relevant services and/or advisories to you;
VI. Abide by any safety, security, public service or legal requirements and processes;
VII. Send offers and other promotional communications
VIII. Notify you when Site updates are available;
IX. Send you information about additional healthcare services or general wellness from us or on behalf of our affiliates and trusted third-party partners;
X. Improve the quality of healthcare through the performance of quality reviews and similar activities;
XI. Fulfill any other purpose for which you provide us Personal Information; and
XII. For any other purpose for which you give us authorization;


Only Personal Data necessary for the services which MERCATAN.COM ONLINE STORE offers and which you have subscribed to will be obtained from you and processed to enable you to avail of the services of the Licensed Physicians. Additional Personal Data may be required from you should you desire to avail of the other products and services offered.


We may use your Personal Data to the extent necessary to comply with the requirements of the law and legal process, such as a court order; to comply with a legal obligation; or to prevent imminent harm to public security, safety, or order.


We use your Non-Personal Information for statistical, analytical, and research purposes to create anonymous and aggregated reports. We commit to process your Personal Data fairly and lawfully, in a manner that will be transparent to you, to allow you the option to know the nature and extent of processing.

We will seek your consent in case we will use or process your Personal Data for any purpose other than those listed under this Section 5, or if required by Law or our Policy


You may avail of our broadcast messages relevant to you through written correspondence, text messaging, internet, or other similar means of communication. You may also change your mind at any time and opt out of receiving them by contacting the mercatan hotline (+63 995 093 9891).

6. Sharing of Personal Information

In order to provide the medical services and continuing care to you, we may share some of your Personal Information to our Partners. In particular:

I. If you avail of the telemedicine consultation service, the following Personal Information will be shared to: (a) the physician you consulted with; and (b) in the event such physician is registered with mercatan under a healthcare institution to allow them to render the telemedicine consultation services and monitor your condition:

1. Name;
2. Date of birth;
3. Age;
4. Gender;
5. Civil status;
6. Religion;
7. Medical history and conditions;
8. Medical concerns subject of the telemedicine consultation;
9. E-prescription;
10. Telephone number;
11. Mobile number;
12. E-mail; and
13. Results of telemedicine consultation, including previous results in order to provide a complete picture of your medical history and condition


II. If you avail of our services, the following Personal Information will be shared to:


1.) The relevant third-party pharmacies, as the partners on mercatan which could supply your medicine and could provide your pharmacy requirements:


1. Name;
2. E-prescription;
3. Locational information;
4. Mobile number; and
5. E-mail.

2.) The ambulance service provider you chose, as an enabler-partner on mercatan which would provide the ambulance services selected on mercatan:


1. Name;
2. Location information;
3. Mobile number; and
4. E-mail.
5. Medical condition or concern.


III. If you avail of clinic booking services, the following Personal Information will be shared to relevant third-party clinics or laboratories matched with you for clinic bookings, as the partners on mercatan with whom your clinic schedule will be booked:


1. Name;
2. Mobile number;
3. E-mail;
4. Date of birth;
5. Gender;
6. Medical concern subject of the booking services availed of; and
7. Medical history and conditions.


IV. If you avail of diagnostic testing booking services, the following Personal Information will be shared to third party clinics or laboratories matched with you for diagnostic testing bookings, with whom your diagnostic testing schedule will be booked:


1. Name;
2. Mobile number;
3. E-mail;
4. Date of birth;
5. Gender;
6. Type of diagnostic testing subject of the booking services availed of;
7. Medical concern subject of the booking services availed of; and
8. Medical history and conditions.

7. Protection of User Data

We give utmost respect to your privacy. We take paramount care in protecting your Personal Data. As such, we secure and protect your Personal Data with proper safeguards to ensure confidentiality and privacy; prevent loss, theft, or use for unauthorized purposes; and comply with the requirements of the Law, specifically the Data Privacy Act of 2012 and its implementing rules and related laws, circulars, and issuances.

Communications over the internet may not be secure, and so we prudently take the reasonable and appropriate security measures that use a variety of physical, electronic, and procedural safeguards to protect Personal Data. As an example, we protect and keep your information submitted through our Site safe using a secured server behind a firewall, encryption, and other appropriate security controls. When you enter your information through our Site, we encrypt that information using Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) technology so that it cannot be read as the information travels over the internet. We regularly review our information collection, storage, and processing practices, including physical security measures, to guard against unauthorized access to our system and unauthorized alteration, disclosure, or destruction of information we are in possession of.

We only permit your Personal Data to be accessed or processed by our authorized personnel who will have access to and hold such information under strict confidentiality. We restrict access to information to selected and qualified employees, contractors, and agents, including the Licensed Physicians, who have a “need-to-know” in order to process this information, who are subject to strict contractual and technical safeguards and are accountable to the law, the customers, and to mercatan, if they fail to meet these obligations.

Furthermore, we only give you or your authorized representative access to your Personal Information. We do not sell your Personal Data to anyone for any purpose. We do not use nor share your Personal Data with content and/or information providers without your prior request and/or consent. Personal Data will only be disclosed to third parties in accordance with this Privacy Policy.

We keep our records as accurate as possible. If your Personal Information needs to be corrected or updated, and for as long as you are registered as our member, you may access your account details and correct your Personal Data by contacting the mercatan Representative through the mercatan hotline (+63 995 093 98 91).

We keep your Personal Data in our records, as may be applicable, while you are our customer, or as long as it is necessary to fulfill the purpose for which it was collected, or while it is needed by us for business, tax, or legal purposes. Disposition of Personal Data shall be done in accordance with the law, in a secure manner that would prevent further processing, unauthorized access, or to ensure that disposed information is not accessible to the public. Your Personal Data remains your property. We are not responsible for information, content, application, product, or service that we do not own or provide. We will take all measures to fight spam, fraud or any unauthorized messages that may attempt to or do traverse our network.

8. High-Level Privacy Principles

a. Purpose and Use. We will limit the access, collection, sharing, disclosure, and further use of your Personal Data to legitimate business purposes as outlined in this Policy or to otherwise meet legal obligations.

b. Data Minimization. We will collect, access, and use only the Personal Data necessary to meet legitimate business purposes as outlined in this Policy.

c. Respect User Rights. You will be provided with information about, and an easy means to exercise, your rights over the use of your Personal Data on our website at www.mercatan.com.

d. Security. Personal Data will be protected, using reasonable safeguards appropriate to the sensitivity of the information.

e. and Enforcement. All responsible persons will be accountable for ensuring that these principles are met. You have the right to lodge a complaint before the relevant government agencies, including the National Privacy Commission of the Philippines.

9. Contact Us

For any questions or concerns, you may contact our Privacy Officer as follows:

Email address: [email protected]
Hotline: +63 995 093 98 91
Postal address: Unit 2-10, Ferosa Condominium, Donada Street, Pasay City, Philippines 1300