Clinique Omicron Inc. undertakes to keep personal information only as long as necessary for the purposes for which it was collected, in accordance with applicable legal, regulatory and ethical requirements. Strict security measures are in place to ensure the confidentiality, integrity and protection of data throughout its life cycle.

9.1. Shelf life

The length of time personal information is kept varies according to the nature of the data and the associated legal obligations:
- Patient medical information : 
- In accordance with the requirements of the Collège des médecins du Québec, medical records are kept for a minimum of 10 years from the last date of intervention in the file or, in the case of minors, until they reach the age of 18, plus an additional 10 years.
- Employee information :
- Employee files are kept for a minimum period of 6 years after the end of the employment relationship, in compliance with tax and labor laws.
- Administrative and financial information : 
- Accounting, tax and contractual documents are kept for the period prescribed by applicable laws, generally 7 years.

In some cases, longer retention periods may apply due to specific obligations, such as litigation, regulatory investigations or research needs, subject to appropriate safeguards.

9.2 Secure destruction methods

Once the retention period has expired or the personal information is no longer required, Clinique Omicron securely destroys it to prevent unauthorized access, loss or accidental disclosure.

Secure destruction methods include :
- Physical destruction: shredding of paper documents, secure destruction of physical storage media (hard disks, USB sticks).
- Secure electronic deletion: permanent deletion of electronic files using specialized software to ensure that data cannot be recovered.
- Backup deletion: deletion of data backups in accordance with the clinic's security protocols.

Information destruction is carried out by authorized employees or service providers specialized in secure document management, under contractual confidentiality agreements.

9.3. Data anonymization (if applicable)

In certain situations, rather than destroying personal information, Clinique Omicron may choose to anonymize it in order to use it for research, statistical analysis or service improvement purposes. Anonymization consists in irreversibly transforming data so that it can no longer be associated with an identifiable person, either directly or indirectly.

Anonymization practices :
- Comply with recognized security standards to ensure that data cannot be re-identified.
- Are used only where relevant, in particular for scientific research projects, statistical reports or internal performance analyses.
- Subject to rigorous risk assessment before use.

Data anonymization offers an effective way of retaining information for useful purposes, while protecting the privacy of the individuals concerned.