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Privacy Policy

This is the privacy and cookie policy of The Pet Vet (UK Veterinary Services) Limited with Company number: 11319585 registered in England and Wales April 2018 and Quality Pet care Ltd with Company Number 08249167 registered in England and Wales October 2012.

The registered office for The Pet Vet (UK Veterinary Services) Limited and Quality Pet Care Ltd is:

158 Doncaster Road
Rotherham
S65 3EW

This document explains how we collect, use and store your personal information and, potentially, the information of anybody named by you. If you would like a printed copy or for this document to be provided in an alternative format (e.g. Braille, large print, audio file) please contact us.

We understand that your privacy is important to you and want you to be confident about how we use your personal information, but to also be aware of your rights in this regard. We respect and value the privacy of all our customers and will only collect and use personal data in ways that are described here, and in a manner that is consistent with our obligations and your rights in law.

We gather and process your personal information in accordance with this policy and in compliance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR 2016/679) and other relevant data protection regulation and laws.

GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation 2016/679) allows you the right to:

• Be informed about your information held with us.
   • Have access to the information held with us.
   • Rectify errors in any information held by us.
   • Erase certain information held by us.
   • Restrict the processing of any information held by us.
   • Object to the usage of their information in data programs.

You can contact us:

• By post, to the registered office published on these web pages;

• By telephone, on the surgery contact numbers published on our website.

Information that we collect

We process your personal information to meet our legal, statutory and contractual obligations and to provide you with our products and services. We will never collect any unnecessary personal data from you and do not process your information in any way, other than as specified in this policy.

The personal data that we collect is:

  • Name
  • Business/home address
  • Email • Telephone number
  • Mobile telephone number
  • Contact person(s) contact information

We collect information in the following ways:

Most of your information will have been provided by you (or the business providing the service on your behalf) or created through the use of our products or services.

• Online forms
   • Hard copy forms
   • Verbal instruction
   • CCTV footage
• Mobile apps

How we use your personal data

We will keep your personal information to be used for the benefit of your pets’ health and to update you on recommended treatments as well as any offers that we feel will be of benefit to you or your pet. If you do not wish to be contacted by us please inform the surgery team who will note your wishes on your record.
Please note that if you do not wish to be contacted, you will not receive vaccine or other important reminders.

We take your privacy very seriously and will never disclose, share or sell your data without your consent; unless required to do so by law. We retain your data only for as long as is necessary and for the purpose(s) specified in this notice.

Where you have consented to us providing you with promotional offers and marketing, you are free to withdraw this consent at any time. The purposes and reasons for processing your personal data are detailed below:

We collect your personal data for the purposes of treating your pets, communicating with you about said treatment, and invoicing for the work done.

We may process data about your use of our website and services (“usage data“).

The usage data may include your IP address, geographical location, browser type and version, operating system, referral source, length of visit, page views and website navigation paths, as well as information about the timing, frequency and pattern of your service use. The source of the usage data is our analytics tracking system. This usage data may be processed for the purposes of analysing the use of the website and services. The legal basis for this processing is our legitimate interests, namely monitoring and improving our website and services.

We may process your details (“account data“). The account data may include your name and email address and other personal information about you and your animals. The source of the account data is you. The account data may be processed for the purposes of operating our practice management system, website, providing our services, ensuring the security of our website and services, maintaining back-ups of our databases and communicating with you. The legal basis for this processing is consent OR our legitimate interests, namely the proper administration of our website and services.

We may process your personal data that are provided in the course of the use of our services (“service data“). The service data may include any information about you and your animals. The source of the service data is you. The service data may be processed for the purposes of operating our website, providing our services, ensuring the security of our website and services, maintaining back-ups of our databases and communicating with you. The legal basis for this processing is consent OR our legitimate interests, namely the proper administration of our website and business.

We may process information contained in any enquiry you submit to us regarding goods and/or services (“enquiry data“). The enquiry data may be processed for the purposes of offering, marketing and selling relevant goods and/or services to you. The legal basis for this processing is consent.

We may process information relating to our customer relationships, including customer contact information (“customer relationship data“). The customer relationship data may include your name, your contact details, and information contained in communications between us and you. The source of the customer relationship data is you. The customer relationship data may be processed for the purposes of managing our relationships with customers, communicating with customers, keeping records of those communications and promoting our products and services to customers. The legal basis for this processing is consent OR our legitimate interests, namely the proper management of our customer relationships.

We may process information relating to transactions, including purchases of goods and services, that you enter into with us and/or through our website (“transaction data“). The transaction data may include your contact details, your card details and the transaction details. The source of the transaction data is you and/or our payment services provider. The transaction data may be processed for the purpose

of supplying the purchased goods and services and keeping proper records of those transactions. The legal basis for this processing is the performance of a contract between you and us and/or taking steps, at your request, to enter into such a contract and our legitimate interests, namely the proper administration of our website and business.

We may process information that you provide to us for the purpose of subscribing to our email notifications and/or newsletters (“notification data“). The notification data may be processed for the purposes of sending you the relevant notifications and/or newsletters. The legal basis for this processing is consent OR the performance of a contract between you and us and/or taking steps, at your request, to enter into such a contract OR we deem it to be in the best interests of your animal(s).

We may process information contained in or relating to any communication that you send to us (“correspondence data“). The correspondence data may include the communication content and metadata associated with the communication. Our website will generate the metadata associated with communications made using the website forms. The correspondence data may be processed for the purposes of communicating with you and record-keeping. The legal basis for this processing is our legitimate interests, namely the proper administration of our website and business and communications with users.

We may process any of your personal data identified in this policy where necessary for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims, whether in court proceedings or in an administrative or out-of-court procedure. The legal basis for this processing is our legitimate interests, namely the protection and assertion of our legal rights, your legal rights and the legal rights of others.

In addition to the specific purposes for which we may process your personal data set out in this Section 3, we may also process any of your personal data where such processing is necessary for compliance with a legal obligation to which we are subject, or in order to protect your vital interests or the vital interests of another person or animal.

Please do not supply any other person’s personal data to us, unless we prompt you to do so.

We do not store bank or credit card details.

Sharing and disclosing your personal information

We do not share or disclose any of your personal information without your consent, other than for the purposes specified in this policy or where there is a legal requirement. We may use third parties to provide the below services and business functions; however, all processors acting on our behalf process your data only in accordance with instructions from us and comply fully with this privacy policy, the

data protection laws and any other appropriate confidentiality and security measures. We do not transfer or store any of your personal data outside of the EU.

Your details are only passed on to third parties:

  • In order to maintain routine reminders; or
  • Where necessary, to debt collection agencies, solicitors or other professional advisors insofar as reasonably necessary for the purposes of obtaining or maintaining insurance coverage, managing risks, obtaining professional advice, or the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims, whether in court proceedings or in an administrative or out-of-court procedure.; or
  • Where necessary to other veterinary organisations, for example in a referral situation; or
  • To send you marketing information and sell to you relevant goods and/or services where we have assessed that it is beneficial to you as a customer to improve the services we offer to you. Such information will be non-intrusive and is processed on the grounds of legitimate interests.

We will share financial transaction data with our payment services providers only to the extent necessary for the purposes of processing your payments, refunding such payments and dealing with complaints and queries relating to such payments and refunds. You can find information about the payment services providers’ privacy policies and practices on their respective websites.

Each such third party will act as a data controller in relation to the enquiry data that we supply to it; and upon contacting you, each such third party will supply to you a copy of its own privacy policy, which will govern that third party’s use of your personal data.

We may disclose your personal data where such disclosure is necessary for compliance with a legal obligation to which we are subject, or in order to protect your vital interests or the vital interests of another person. We may also disclose your personal data where such disclosure is necessary for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims, whether in court proceedings or in an administrative or out-of-court procedure.

Safeguarding measures

We take your privacy seriously and take every reasonable measure and precaution to protect and secure your personal data. We work hard to protect you and your information from unauthorised access, alteration, disclosure or destruction and have several layers of security measures in place.

Our website and Facebook page may link through to other websites of interest. Please note that if you use these links, we have no control over third party websites and cannot be responsible for your privacy and protection or for the accuracy of any information on these sites.

Consequences of not providing your data

You are not obligated to provide your personal information to us. However, as this information is required for us to provide you with our services, we will not be able to offer some/all our services without it.

How long we keep your data

We only ever retain personal information for as long as is necessary and we have strict review and retention policies in place to meet these obligations. We will keep your data on our systems for as long as a relationship exists between us, unless you ask us specifically to remove your details.

We shall hold your information for the duration of time that you remain registered with The Pet Vet and a minimum of a further 7 years.

Usage data will be retained for a maximum period of 3 years following your interaction with our website.

Where you have consented to us using your details for direct marketing, we will keep such data until you notify us otherwise and/or withdraw your consent.

In some cases it is not possible for us to specify in advance the periods for which your personal data will be retained. In such cases, we will determine the period of retention based on the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons’ criteria.

Notwithstanding the other provisions of this section, we may retain your personal data where such retention is necessary for compliance with a legal obligation to which we are subject, or in order to protect your vital interests or the vital interests of another natural person.

About cookies

A cookie is a file containing an identifier (a string of letters and numbers) that is sent by a web server to a web browser and is stored by the browser. The identifier is then sent back to the server each time the browser requests a page from the server.

Cookies may be either “persistent” cookies or “session” cookies: a persistent cookie will be stored by a web browser and will remain valid until its set expiry date, unless deleted by the user before the expiry date; a session cookie, on the other hand, will expire at the end of the user session, when the web browser is closed.

Cookies do not typically contain any information that personally identifies a user, but personal information that we store about you may be linked to the information stored in and obtained from cookies.

We use cookies for the following purposes:

  • Security – we use cookies as an element of the security measures used to protect user accounts, including preventing fraudulent use of login credentials, and to protect our website and services generally;
  • Analysis – we use cookies to help us to analyse the use and performance of our website and services
  • Cookie consent – we use cookies to store your preferences in relation to the use of cookies more generally.

Cookies used by our service providers:

  • Our service providers use cookies and those cookies may be stored on your computer when you visit our website.
  • We use Google Analytics to analyse the use of our website. Google Analytics gathers information about website use by means of cookies. The information gathered relating to our website is used to create reports about the use of our website. Google’s privacy policy is available at: https://policies.google.com/privacy

Most browsers allow you to refuse to accept cookies and to delete cookies. The methods for doing so vary from browser to browser, and from version to version.

You can however obtain up-to-date information about blocking and deleting cookies following the links below for individual browsers.

Chrome: 
https://support.google.com/chrome/answer/95647

Firefox: 
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/enable-and-disable-cookies-website-preferences

Opera: 
https://www.opera.com/help/tutorials/security/cookies/

Internet Explorer: 
https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/help/17442/windows-internet-explorer-delete-manage-cookies

Safari: 
https://support.apple.com/en-gb/guide/safari/ibrw850f6c51/mac

Edge: 
https://privacy.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-10-microsoft-edge-and-privacy

Blocking all cookies will have a negative impact upon the usability of many websites.

If you block cookies, you will not be able to use all the features on our website.

Your rights

You have the right to access any personal information that we process about you and to request information about:

  • What personal data we hold about you.
  •  The purposes of the processing.
  •  he categories of personal data concerned.
  • The recipients to whom the personal data has/will be disclosed.
  • How long we intend to store your personal data for. 
  • If we did not collect the data directly from you, information about the source.

You have the right to request a copy of your information. If you would like a copy of your information in order to allow us to update or correct it, please contact us at your registered surgery by post, telephone or email. These contact details are available on our website.

You have the right to confirmation as to whether or not we process your personal data and, where we do, access to the personal data, together with certain additional information. That additional information includes details of the purposes of the processing, the categories of personal data concerned and the recipients of the personal data. Providing the rights and freedoms of others are not affected, we will supply to you a copy of your personal data. The first copy will be provided free of charge, but additional copies may be subject to a reasonable fee.

You have the right to have any inaccurate personal data about you rectified and, taking into account the purposes of the processing, to have any incomplete personal data about you completed.

In some circumstances you have the right to the erasure of your personal data without undue delay. Those circumstances include: the personal data are no longer necessary in relation to the purposes for which they were collected or otherwise processed; you withdraw consent to consent-based processing; you object to the processing under certain rules of applicable data protection law; the processing is for direct marketing purposes; and the personal data have been unlawfully processed. However, there are exclusions of the right to erasure. The general exclusions include where processing is necessary: for exercising the right of freedom of expression and information; for compliance with a legal obligation; or for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims.

In some circumstances you have the right to restrict the processing of your personal data. Those circumstances are: you contest the accuracy of the personal data; processing is unlawful but you oppose erasure; we no longer need the personal data for the purposes of our processing, but you require personal data for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims; and you have objected to processing, pending the verification of that objection. Where processing has been restricted on this basis, we may continue to store your personal data. However, we

will only otherwise process it: with your consent; for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims; for the protection of the rights of another natural or legal person; or for reasons of important public interest.

You have the right to object to our processing of your personal data on grounds relating to your particular situation, but only to the extent that the legal basis for the processing is that the processing is necessary for: the performance of a task carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of any official authority vested in us; or the purposes of the legitimate interests pursued by us or by a third party. If you make such an objection, we will cease to process the personal information unless we can demonstrate compelling legitimate grounds for the processing which override your interests, rights and freedoms, or the processing is for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims.

You have the right to object to our processing of your personal data for direct marketing purposes (including profiling for direct marketing purposes). If you make such an objection, we will cease to process your personal data for this purpose.

You have the right to object to our processing of your personal data for scientific or historical research purposes or statistical purposes on grounds relating to your particular situation, unless the processing is necessary for the performance of a task carried out for reasons of public interest.

If you believe that we hold any incomplete or inaccurate data about you, you have the right to ask us to correct and/or complete the information.

You have the right to request erasure of your personal data or to restrict in accordance with the data protection laws; as well as to object to any direct marketing from us. Where applicable, you have the right to data portability of your information and the right to be informed about any automated decision-making we may use.

If we receive a request from you to exercise any of the above rights, we may ask you to verify your identity before acting on the request. This is to ensure that your data is protected and kept secure.

We will comply with any reasonable request within a month. We have the right to refuse to comply to any unreasonable or excessive requests and will explain this refusal to the individual concerned.

Lodging a complaint

We hope that we can address any concerns that you may have, but you can always contact the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) with any concerns in relation to your personal data. For more information, visit www.ico.org.uk.

Our website

This website is owned and operated by The Pet Vet (UK Veterinary Services) Limited together with Quality Pet Care Ltd.

Data protection officer

Our data protection officer is Terry Pearson. Terry may be contacted by post:

The Pet Vet/The Vet
158 Doncaster Road
Rotherham
S65 3EW

© 2024 The Pet Vet. All rights reserved.