Policies and standards

How trust is protected.

One readable guide to reviewer privacy, contributor rights, moderation, editorial independence and future commercial relationships.

Owner-approved working policy — 29 August 2026. These principles have been approved for the preview service. Review collection must not open to the public until the final data flow, lawful bases, processor arrangements and production controls have been checked. Formal legal review is recommended before commercial or production launch.

Privacy policy

Reviewer privacy comes first

Cambridge Medical Partners operates GP Trusted Tools and is the data controller. This section explains the information the service expects to process when review submission opens and the principles that govern its use.

Information associated with a review

A submission may include a private email address, a chosen public display name, rating, review text, professional role, selected practice, practice-size band, setting, clinical system, UK nation and length of use. Authoritative practice information may be used to derive contextual attributes. Limited technical information may be processed where necessary to secure the service and prevent spam or abuse.

How information is used

Information may be used to receive and verify submissions, contact reviewers where necessary, moderate and publish approved reviews, protect the service, improve its operation, investigate concerns, and produce statistics, research and commercial insights. Public output is limited to approved review content and deliberately selected, privacy-reduced context.

Research, benchmarking and commercial insight products will use aggregated or effectively anonymised information unless a separate lawful and transparent arrangement permits otherwise. Direct identifiers, reviewer contact details, exact reviewer-practice relationships and private moderation information will not be sold or licensed for unrelated third-party marketing.

Practice and identity privacy

Combinations of contextual details may identify someone even without their name. Public information is therefore minimised and banded. Exact practice relationships are treated as potentially identifying personal information, and uncommon combinations may be suppressed or grouped.

Retention and withdrawal

Review information may be retained indefinitely so that published experiences and their context remain useful, unless deletion is requested or continued retention is no longer necessary or lawful. Requests are assessed against applicable obligations and any legitimate need to retain limited security, moderation, legal or audit records.

Direct identifiers may later be separated from older reviews. If the link can still be restored, the information is pseudonymised and remains personal data. If identifying links are irreversibly removed and re-identification is no longer reasonably possible, appropriately minimised review and demographic information may be retained and used as anonymised information.

Service providers, partners and business transfers

Necessary information may be processed by contracted hosting, database, security, communications, analytics and professional-service providers under appropriate safeguards. Before introducing a materially different partner or purpose, GP Trusted Tools will assess the lawful basis, compatibility, security and transparency requirements.

Information may be disclosed under confidentiality to bona fide investors, purchasers and professional advisers during financing, restructuring, acquisition or sale discussions. If the platform or operating business transfers to another controller, the transfer will be subject to data-protection due diligence, appropriate safeguards and any required notice. A new owner does not receive unrestricted permission to repurpose personal information.

Rights, cookies and marketing

Requests concerning access, correction, objection, restriction, withdrawal or deletion can be sent to [email protected]. The response will depend on the request and applicable law.

The site aims to minimise cookies and tracking. Any non-essential analytics, advertising, personalisation or direct-marketing technology will be assessed and explained before it is introduced, with consent or another lawful basis used where required.

Contributor terms

Rights in submitted reviews

Reviewers retain ownership of their original writing. By submitting a contribution, the reviewer grants Cambridge Medical Partners a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free, transferable and sublicensable licence to store, verify, moderate, publish, reproduce, distribute and display the contribution in connection with GP Trusted Tools and related services.

The licence permits inclusion in websites, applications, reports, research, APIs, licensed datasets and other free or paid products; statistical analysis and aggregation; and transfer with the platform or operating business. It also permits proportionate editing for spelling, formatting, accessibility, privacy and legal safety. The reviewer’s meaning will not be materially changed without their explicit instruction.

A reviewer may request withdrawal from public display. Withdrawal does not necessarily require immediate deletion from backups, security records or proportionate moderation and legal audit trails, and does not reverse uses already lawfully completed. Personal information remains subject to the privacy policy and applicable rights.

Contributor responsibilities

  • Describe your own genuine experience and provide accurate context.
  • Do not include patient-identifiable, confidential or unlawfully obtained information.
  • Declare supplier, employment, financial or other material conflicts.
  • Do not submit content that infringes another person’s rights.

Moderation policy

Every review is checked by a human

No new review is published automatically. Each submission is assessed for indications of genuine first-hand use, privacy risks, conflicts, spam, abuse and legal or safety concerns.

Content that is not allowed

  • Patient-identifiable, confidential or private information.
  • Reviews not based on genuine first-hand use.
  • Abusive, threatening, discriminatory or potentially defamatory material.
  • Unsupported allegations about identifiable people.
  • Vendor-authored or incentivised reviews presented as independent experience.
  • Marketing, impersonation, manipulation, spam or off-topic submissions.

A submission may be approved, rejected, withdrawn or held for more information. Legitimate criticism is not removed merely because it is negative. Reviews are not materially rewritten without the reviewer’s explicit instruction.

Suppliers and readers may report concerns, but a report does not guarantee removal. Supplier responses and other supplier-authored material must be clearly labelled. Suppliers cannot edit, hide or buy the removal of legitimate independent reviews.

Editorial policy

Commercial support cannot buy editorial judgement

Commercial relationships must not determine ratings, evidence labels, comparisons or moderation decisions. Paid placement must never be presented as independent editorial judgement, and suppliers do not receive access to private reviewer identity or moderation information.

Inclusion does not establish NHS approval or endorsement, accreditation, clinical validation, compliance, procurement eligibility or clinical-system integration. Such claims require an appropriate source and clear qualification. Product information, supplier statements, editorial analysis and reviewer experiences remain visibly distinct.

Material errors will be corrected transparently. A supplier may provide evidence and request a factual correction, but cannot control editorial conclusions or suppress genuine criticism.

Commercial standards

Future revenue must be visible and bounded

GP Trusted Tools may in future earn revenue from subscriptions, enhanced supplier profiles, sponsorship, advertising, affiliate or referral arrangements, research, benchmarking, commercial reports, catalogue or API licensing, enterprise services, white-label services, and sale or investment in the platform or operating business.

Advertising, sponsorship, affiliate links, paid profiles and supplier-funded material will be labelled clearly enough for users to recognise their commercial nature. Payment will not improve a rating, guarantee favourable coverage, determine moderation, or purchase removal of a legitimate review. A paid profile will not imply endorsement.

Aggregated or effectively anonymised insights may be sold or licensed after disclosure risk has been assessed. Pseudonymised individual-level records will continue to be treated as personal information where re-identification remains possible.

General site terms

Using the catalogue

Catalogue information and reviews are provided for general information. Reviews represent their contributors’ personal opinions, not recommendations by GP Trusted Tools. Users remain responsible for procurement, information-governance, regulatory and clinical-safety decisions.

The site and its content are provided without a guarantee of completeness, continuous availability or suitability for a particular purpose. To the extent permitted by law, Cambridge Medical Partners is not responsible for losses arising from reliance on catalogue information or reviews.

Cambridge Medical Partners may assign these terms and the associated content licences as part of a genuine transfer, restructuring or sale of the platform or operating business. These terms are intended to be governed by the law of England and Wales.

Contact and changes

Questions, reports and policy updates

Questions, privacy requests, review reports and correction requests can be sent to [email protected]. Please avoid including unnecessary personal or patient information.

Policies may be updated as the service, law and commercial model develop. Material changes affecting personal-data use, moderation, editorial independence or commercial influence require owner approval and will be communicated where applicable.