Privacy Policy

Effective Date: 1st March 2025

At St Boniface Veterinary Clinic Ltd we are committed to protecting and respecting your privacy. This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, store, and protect your personal data. It also explains your rights regarding your personal data under UK data protection law, including the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018.

1. Information We Collect

We collect personal data from our clients, which may include the following:

  • Personal Identification Information: Name, address, phone number, email address.
  • Pet Information: Details about your animal(s) including name, breed, age, medical history, and vaccination status.
  • Payment Information: Details necessary for billing and payment processing (e.g., credit/debit card information).
  • Health & Production Data: Information related to your animal’s medical treatments, prescriptions, surgeries, and procedures.
  • Communication: Records of communications between you and the veterinary practice, including emails, phone calls, and appointment notes.
  • Website: Usage information is collected using cookies.

2. How We Use Your Information

We use your personal data for the following purposes:

  • To provide veterinary services and treatments to your pet(s).
  • To manage appointments, consultations, and follow-up care.
  • To process payments and billing.
  • To communicate with you regarding your pet’s health and treatment.
  • To send appointment reminders, health updates, and other relevant communications.
  • To comply with legal obligations, including regulatory requirements for veterinary care.
  • To improve our services, including customer satisfaction surveys or feedback.

3. Website

How We Use Cookies

A cookie is a small file that requests permission to be placed on your computer’s hard drive. Once you agree, the file is added, and the cookie helps analyse web traffic or notifies you when you visit a specific site. Cookies allow web applications to respond to you as an individual by gathering and remembering information about your preferences.

We use traffic log cookies to identify which pages are being visited. This helps us analyse website traffic and improve our website to better suit customer needs. We only use this information for statistical analysis purposes, and the data is removed from our system afterward.

Overall, cookies help us provide a better website experience by allowing us to monitor which pages are useful to you and which are not. A cookie does not give us access to your computer or any personal information other than the data you choose to share with us.

You can choose to accept or decline cookies. While most web browsers automatically accept cookies, you can typically modify your browser settings to decline them if preferred. Please be aware that declining cookies may affect your ability to fully use certain features of the website.

Links to Other Websites

Our website may contain links to external websites of interest. However, once you leave our site using these links, we do not have control over the destination website. As a result, we cannot be responsible for the protection and privacy of any information you provide while visiting these sites. These external websites are not governed by this privacy policy. We recommend exercising caution and reviewing the privacy statement applicable to the site you are visiting.

4. Legal Basis for Processing Your Data

We process your personal data based on the following legal grounds:

  • Contractual Necessity: The processing is necessary to fulfil our contract with you (e.g., providing veterinary care to your pet).
  • Consent: We may ask for your consent to send marketing communications or process specific types of data.
  • Legal Obligation: We may process your data to comply with legal requirements, such as maintaining medical records as required by law.
  • Legitimate Interests: We may process data to support our legitimate business interests, such as improving our services and protecting against fraud.

5. Data Retention

We will retain your personal data for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes for which it was collected, including legal, accounting, and reporting obligations. When personal data is no longer required, it will be securely deleted or anonymised.

6. Sharing Your Information

We may share your personal data with the following third parties:

  • Veterinary Partners/Collaborators: In some cases, we may need to share your pet’s medical information with external veterinary specialists or clinics.
  • Payment Providers: We may share payment information with third-party payment processors to process payments.
  • Regulatory Authorities: We may need to disclose your data to regulatory authorities, such as veterinary boards or government agencies, when required by law.
  • IT Service Providers: We may share your data with third-party service providers who assist us with IT services, data hosting, and security.

We will not share your personal data with any third parties for marketing purposes without your explicit consent.

7. Your Rights

Under the GDPR, you have several important rights regarding your personal data:

  • Right to Access: You can request access to the personal data we hold about you.
  • Right to Rectification: You can request correction to any inaccurate or incomplete data.
  • Right to Erasure: You can request the deletion of your personal data in certain circumstances.
  • Right to Restriction: You can request the restriction of processing of your personal data.
  • Right to Object: You can object to the processing of your data based on legitimate interests or direct marketing.
  • Right to Withdraw Consent: If we process your data based on consent, you can withdraw that consent at any time.

To exercise any of these rights, please contact us at the details below.

8. Security of Your Information

We take the security of personal data seriously and implement appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect it from unauthorised access, loss, or disclosure. These measures include encryption, firewalls, and restricted access to personal data.

9. Changes to This Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. Any changes will be updated on our website with a revised “Effective Date.”

10. Contact Us

If you have any questions or concerns about this Privacy Policy or how we process your personal data, please contact us:

St Boniface Veterinary Clinic Ltd
Exeter Road
Crediton
Devon
EX17 3BN
Email: info@stbonifacevets.co.uk
Tel: 01363 772860

11. Complaints

We ask that any complaints regarding GDPR/Data Protection are submitted to us in writing via the contact details provided above.

If you are not happy with our response, you can submit a complaint to the Information Commissioner’s Office by phoning them on 0303 123 1113, or submitting an online request on their website:

https://ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint/data-protection-complaints/