WOODLANDS VETERINARY CLINIC LTD, PRIVACY POLICY

Updated May 2018

Our ‘Privacy Policy’ seeks to explain, in a concise and transparent manner, when and why we collect personal information from our customers. It also explains how we use your personal data, the conditions under which we may disclose it to others and how we keep it secure.

For the purposes of the Data Protection Act 1998 (the “Act”), the data ‘Controller’ is Woodlands Veterinary Clinic, (Registered Company Number 7680917), Salisbury Avenue, Warden Hill, Cheltenham, England, GL51 3GA.

CONTACTING US REGARDING OUR PRIVACY POLICY

Any questions regarding this ‘Privacy Policy’ and our privacy practices should be sent by email to enquiries@woodlands-vets.co.uk or by writing to Woodlands Veterinary Clinic, Salisbury Avenue, Warden Hill, Cheltenham, England, GL51 3GA.

YOUR CONSENT

Please be aware, that by becoming a paying customer of Woodlands Veterinary Clinic, you are agreeing to be bound by our ‘Privacy Policy’ and ‘Terms and Conditions of Service’, and that you understand and agree that personal information you provide will be held on a database created and operated by us.

WHAT INFORMATION DO WE COLLECT AND WHY?

When you register your pet in surgery you will be asked for some essential information including your title, first name, surname, postal address, email address, telephone and if applicable payment information. You may also be requested to give your details for other reasons. These details are collected either in person, by telephone or online, to help us:

• Register your details as a new client or update your details if they change
• Register your pet on health plans
• Make appointments
• Process the fees due for any treatment
• Contact you about your pet, your account or credit status where required;
• Deliver a safe and secure service by helping to prevent and detect fraud. We may need to disclose information to assist legal or debt recovery processes;
• Speed up your form filling processes if you’ve registered online (where applicable);
• Notify you about changes to our service. We will also automatically collect data such as dates and times of your visits to the Website.

HOW LONG DO WE KEEP YOUR INFORMATION?

If you purchase any products and services from us, then under UK tax law we are required to keep your basic personal data (name, address, contact details) for a minimum of 6 years after which time it can be erased on your request. We will hold your personal information on our systems for the purposes of providing you with our ongoing services for a maximum of 7 years, or until you notify us that you no longer wish us to do so, unless your request contradicts our statutory obligations.

HOW WE PROTECT YOUR INFORMATION

We endeavour to protect your information by:

• Keeping your information up-to-date and accurate. Please note that, to do this, we require you to tell us if any of your details such as your name or address change; and
• Having in place strict security procedures for the storage and disclosure of your information to prevent unauthorised access.

Unfortunately, the transmission of information via the Internet is not completely secure. Although we will do our best to protect your personal data, we cannot guarantee the security of your data transmitted to and/or through the Website; any transmission is at your own risk. Once we have received your information, we will use strict procedures and security features to try to prevent unauthorised access.

STATEMENT ON THE USE AND DISCLOSURE OF PERSONAL DATA

We may send you by SMS (mobile phone text message), email or post, reminders related to services under our duty of care. We may also telephone you to discuss treatment details.

We may disclose your personal information to affiliated companies and other selected third parties for the purposes of servicing your requirements, including, but not limited to;

• Pet insurance providers
• Referrals to other veterinary practices
• Vet laboratories
• Pet health care plan providers

We may disclose your personal information to third parties, if we are under a duty to disclose or share your personal data in order to comply with any legal obligation, or in order to enforce or apply our Terms and Conditions or agreements or contracts between us or to protect the rights, property, or safety of Woodlands Veterinary Clinic Ltd, our customers, or others. This includes exchanging information with other companies and organisations for the purposes of fraud protection, credit risk reduction and our internal investigations including customer complaints and claims.

COOKIES

In order that we can monitor and improve our Website (https://www.woodlands-vets.co.uk), we may gather certain information about you when you use it via Google Analytics, including details of your domain name and IP (Internet Provider) address, operating system and browser. A cookie is an element of data that a website can send to your browser, which may then store it on the hard drive of your computer. Cookies allow us to understand who has seen which pages on the Website and to make the Website more user friendly. We use cookies so that we can give you a better experience when you return to the Website. Most web browsers automatically accept cookies. You do not have to accept cookies and you should read the information that came with your browser software to see how you can set up your browser to notify you when you receive a cookie. This will give you the opportunity to decide whether to accept it or not. No personal information is stored on our website, nor shared with Google. For further information on how Google uses your data visit: http://www.google.com/policies/privacy

HOW CAN YOU ACCESS, UPDATE AND DELETE YOUR INFORMATION?

Accessing your data
You have the right to ask for a copy of the information we hold about you. You can request a copy of this data at any time by contacting us directly. We will, where possible, always supply your personal data in a convenient and transferable format within 30 days.

Updating your data
Your personal data probably changes all of the time, and the accuracy of your information is important to us. Therefore, if your details do change, or the information we hold becomes inaccurate or out of date, please let us know by contacting us directly or telling one of our staff in person when visiting our surgery and we will update your data.

Deleting your data
If you would like us to delete or erase your personal information from our systems, then where possible (if not required for statutory or contractual requirements) we will do so within 30 days and provide confirmation that your data has been removed from our systems. To request that your personal data is erased from our systems, please contact us directly.

COMPLAINTS PROCEDURE

If at any point you wish to raise a complaint about how we have handled your personal data, then please contact us directly. If you are not satisfied with our response or believe we are not processing your personal data in accordance with the law, you can complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).

CHANGES TO OUR PRIVACY POLICY

Any changes we may make to our Privacy Policy in the future will be posted here and, where appropriate, on our website https://www.woodlands-vets.co.uk 

If you have any queries about our Data Protection Policy, please contact us on 01242 255133.