Terms & Conditions

Privacy notice

Notice version: 2026-10-27. The Association of Vitreo-Retina Specialists of Sri Lanka (AVRSSL) manages SLRIL and is responsible for the personal information used to operate the library. This notice covers visitors, account holders and contributors.

Information and purposes

Registration requires your name, email, password and job function. Credentials, institution and job title are optional professional context. We do not request telephone or postal details for new registrations. Older account records may contain those details; you may correct or clear them through your profile.

We use account information to provide requested access and identify contributors. Contributions include images, file information, case descriptions and discussions. Activity records include votes, saved interests, downloads and notification preferences. Consent timestamps, accepted statements, notice versions, relevant IP addresses, sessions and audit records support security, moderation and accountability. Passwords are stored as hashes.

The necessary lawful basis depends on the purpose and data involved. Contact AVRSSL for the basis and authorization applying to a specific use. Acceptance of Terms does not establish patient permission or authorize unrelated use. Any new purpose requires a separate assessment and appropriate information. Required fields are marked; without the required account information and acknowledgments you cannot register. Published cases remain available without an account.

Clinical material and public visibility

Remove patient identifiers from images, metadata, captions, filenames, clinical histories and discussions before submitting. Use age bands and the minimum clinical detail needed for education. The source institution must hold the applicable authorization, including verified guardian authority where permission for a child is relied on. Do not submit patient consent forms or identifiers to SLRIL.

Published case material and discussions are publicly readable, and your name appears beside discussion contributions. Downloaded material may remain with recipients. Case numbers, metadata removal and watermarks do not by themselves prove anonymity. Report identifying material or a permission concern to AVRSSL promptly. Editors review images and text before publication; changes require renewed clearance.

Account information and unpublished material are limited to authorized staff. Hosting, email and other service providers may process information necessary to operate the service. Contact AVRSSL before registering or uploading for the actual recipients, hosting locations and any overseas transfer arrangements and safeguards.

Retention and deletion

Account information is held while the account exists. Withdrawn accounts are scheduled for deletion after 365 days unless a justified legal hold applies. This is the application's configured period, not a statutory period. You may request earlier deletion through your profile or the privacy contact.

Case material is kept as an educational archive without a fixed automatic expiry; the necessity and safeguards require organizational review.

Account deletion removes the account, consent records, database notifications, reset tokens and database sessions, removes owned unattached uploads, replaces the person's discussion text and redacts identifiable notification copies. Image files are removed through retryable cleanup after the database change commits. Anonymous educational material can remain where appropriately justified. Necessary anonymized audit events may remain. Privacy requests may require a separate assessment of clinical material and retained records.

Session residue in other stores expires according to the deployed configuration and is subject to the operator's deletion procedure; a deleted account cannot authenticate. Contact AVRSSL for remaining technical-record, service-provider and backup retention criteria and any applicable exceptions. Deletion is not a promise to recall every copy previously downloaded from the public internet.

Your choices and privacy requests

Use Profile to correct account details, change your password and request account deletion. Privacy tools let you export available personal data, withdraw participation consent or request restriction. You can also make a request through the postal contact without signing in. We may need proportionate identity verification; do not send passwords, patient identifiers or clinical records in an ordinary request.

Withdrawal disables library participation and records your choice. Restriction stops participation changes and optional library notifications; it does not automatically erase data. Earlier processing is not made unlawful solely by later withdrawal. Continued processing, a legal hold or a refusal needs an applicable justification and an explanation through the request process. Staff account restoration does not reverse withdrawn consent.

Cookies and automated decisions

SLRIL uses cookies needed for sessions, sign-in and request security. Blocking them may prevent account functions. No advertising or tracking purpose is authorized by these participation acknowledgments. Image formatting is automated; no qualifying decision with the effects described in PDPA section 18 has been identified in this implementation. Any introduction of such decision-making requires reassessment and appropriate information.

Legal framework and complaints

GDPR principles are used as an engineering standard; GDPR applicability depends on the actual processing and territorial facts. As checked on 27 October 2026, Gazette No. 2498/16 appoints 1 January 2027 for Sections 2–3 and Parts I and III of the amended Sri Lankan PDPA. The DPA's current notice says Parts II and VII are not yet active. Applicable rights, exceptions and remedies depend on the law in force. You can still send a privacy request to AVRSSL.

You may contact the Data Protection Authority of Sri Lanka about available complaint procedures. Once the relevant Part II provisions operate, the amended request framework generally uses one month, with an explained extension where allowed, and a free response subject to applicable rules. The operator must review current commencement and final instruments rather than treat drafts as binding law.

Privacy contact

Privacy requests — SLRIL, Association of Vitreo-Retina Specialists of Sri Lanka (AVRSSL), National Eye Hospital, Colombo, Sri Lanka. Include your account email and a clear description of the request. Use this contact for assisted access, corrections, objections, withdrawals, erasure requests, source-permission concerns and questions about organizational privacy arrangements.