October 2018
The following sets forth the Privacy Policy for Caring Vets and our website. Caring Vets (Caring Vets Veterinary Hospital, CV, we, or us), is committed to providing the best possible customer experience. Caring Vets is bound by the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth), which sets out a number of principles concerning the privacy of individuals.
Collection and use of your personal information
For each visitor to reach our website, we collect the following non-personally identifiable information including, but not limited to, browser type, version and language, operating system, pages viewed while browsing the website, page access times, and referring website address. This collected information is used internally for the purpose of gauging visitor traffic, trends and delivering personalised content to you.
We record the e-mail addresses of those who communicate with us via email and record information volunteered by visitors, such as survey information and/or site registrations. We may also collect information regarding your marketing preferences.
Mostly, we will collect information from you directly, such as during conversations with our staff in person, by phone, or via email, or when you complete registration forms or provide information about your pet. We may also collect personal information from third parties such as referring veterinarians.
From time to time, we may use customer information for new, unanticipated uses not previously disclosed in our Privacy Policy. If our information practices change at some time in the future, we will use your information for these new purposes. Data collected from the time of the policy change forward will adhere to our updated practices. Changes to our Privacy Policy will be posted on our website.
Type of information collected
Personal information we collect about you includes, your name and contact details, pet ownership and registration details, and details of the insurance applying to your pet. We may also collect personal information according to the requirements of veterinary legislation.
How we hold your information
Your information will be recorded either in hard copy (paper) or electronic form. Information held electronically is generally held on servers controlled by Caring Vets, VetPartners Pty Ltd (our parent company) or on servers controlled by third parties under contractual arrangement with Vet Ventures Pty Ltd, the group of veterinary practices to which we belong, or VetPartners Pty Ltd. We take various measures to ensure that your personal information is protected from unauthorised access, misuse, and loss. Information collected in hard copy is stored securely at our practice.
How we use your personal information
The primary reasons for which we collect, hold, and use your personal information are:
(i) to provide veterinary care to your pet,
(ii) to communicate with you about matters relating to your pet’s health care such as vaccination schedules and reminders,
(iii) to provide general information or advice.
We may send you direct marketing communications to keep you informed about products and services which are related to the health of your pet. The media include, for example, email, SMS, and mail.
Caring Vets respects its customers’ choice to “opt-out” of direct marketing communications. If you wish to opt-out of direct marketing communications, please contact us via any of the contact methods listed under “Contact Us” on our website. You can unsubscribe from newsletters and marketing emails by following the unsubscribe link contained in communication you have received.
Sharing of your personal information
We may sometimes hire other businesses to provide services on our behalf including, but not limited to, marketing agencies. Those businesses will be permitted to obtain only the personal information they need to deliver the service. Caring Vets takes reasonable steps to ensure that these organisations are bound by confidentiality and privacy obligations in relation to the protection of your personal information.
We may also disclose your personal information to other veterinary health care providers, for example, specialists to whom we refer your pet. This may occur due to the provision of veterinary care to your pet subject to veterinarians’ legal and professional obligations.We may also use and disclose your personal information for other purposes such as billing, administration of insurance, and debt recovery, including that which includes the involvement of third parties.
Accessing your personal information
You have a right to access your personal information, subject to exceptions allowed by law. If you would like to do so, please let us know. You may be required to put your request in writing for security reasons. Caring Vets reserves the right to charge a fee for searching for, and providing access to, your information on a per-request basis.
Maintenance of personal information
If you consider that any information we hold about you is inaccurate, we will take reasonable steps to correct that information once we have received instruction from you. Please advise us via any of the contact methods listed under “Contact Us” on our website.
We will take reasonable steps to destroy or remove your identity from personal information when it is no longer required, however certain personal information relating to veterinary treatment records must be maintained according to legislative and professional guidelines.
Changes to this Privacy Policy
Caring Vets reserves the right to make amendments to this Privacy Policy at any time. If you have objections to the Privacy Policy, you should not access or use our website.
Contacting us
Caring Vets welcomes your comments regarding this Privacy Policy. If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy or would like further information, please contact us by any of the means listed under “Contact Us” on our website.
If you have a complaint regarding our policy, or the management of your personal information and you are not satisfied with our response to your enquiry, you are entitled to make a complaint to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner. Contact details can be found at: https://www.oaic.gov.au/individuals/how-do-i-make-a-privacy-complaint.
