Bicester Vets Privacy Notice

This privacy notice tells you how Bicester Vets will collect and process your personal data if you register as a client, purchase our services and products and if you use our website.

About Us
Bicester Vets is an independent small animal veterinary hospital located at Victoria Road, Bicester, Oxfordshire OX26 6PJ. We protect the health and well-being of your pets, offering a range of services that include: diagnosing and treating sick and injured animals, advising owners on good pet care and providing a range of care related products for purchase.

Who to contact regarding your personal data
We take your privacy seriously. Our Data Protection Manager looks after data protection and would be happy to answer any of your questions about this privacy notice and how Bicester Vets uses your data. They can be contacted by calling the practice on 01869 252077.

The personal data we collect and process
There are four main ways we process the personal data you provide. We endeavour to keep this information accurate and up to date and will not keep it longer than is necessary.

1. To administer your account as a Bicester Vets practice client
In order to provide our service effectively and ensure the best possible care for your pet, we need to collect and process the following personal data when we register you as a client.

Personal data type How the data is collected
First name, Last name – As part of registering to be a client
Address – As part of registering to be a client
Phone numbers – As part of registering to be a client
Email address – As part of registering to be a client

This personal data will be used for the following services and purposes:
• To administer your account and provide the products and services you have requested from us. For example, invoicing, calling to change an appointment and to keep a record for legal and accounting purposes.
• To inform you by email of service information about the practice. For example, notification of seasonal opening times or changes to out of hours availability.
• If you have pet insurance and you wish to make a claim, we will pass on your pet’s clinical history with your name and address to your insurance company to allow them to process your claim.

If you decide to purchase our preventative healthcare plan and pay by direct debit, you will also need to provide bank account details to set up and confirm your direct debit. We send plan members treatment reminders by e-mail and sms.

2. To send you marketing communications as a surgery client
We send all our clients the following marketing communications:
• Reminders for pet vaccinations and administering preventative healthcare treatments.
• News information on animal welfare, like top tips for exercise and health checks you can do yourself.
• Promotions and the latest related product offers.

Clients find these communications useful in administering care to their pets and to keep up to date with what is going on at the surgery. They are only sent to existing clients who can opt-out at any time.

The personal data that we process for these communications is first name, email address and mobile phone number.

We would like our clients to enjoy these communications, so it is important to note that you can opt-out at any time by:
• Clicking the ‘Unsubscribe’ link in any marketing communications email.
• Calling our team at the surgery on 01869 252077.
• Dropping into the surgery and speaking to a member of our team.

3. To share with veterinary related 3rd parties WITH your consent
There will be occasions where we will need to ask for your consent to share your personal data with a 3rd party:
• If you would like your pet to be referred to a specialist veterinary surgeon, we will provide them with your pet’s clinical history with your name and address to enable them to confirm your referral appointment.
• Should you wish to move to an alternative veterinary surgery, we will provide your pet’s clinical history with your name and address to your new vets before closing your account.
• Should you wish to micro-chip your pet (cats and rabbits), we register your name, address and contact details with the chip provider. Note that chipping dogs is a legal requirement and we share your personal data in this case under a legal obligation to do so.
• Should you wish to purchase a dog tag, we will provide your name for identification and your contact number for engraving to the dog tag provider.
• Should you wish to place a pet food order tailored to your individual pet, we will provide your name, email address and contact number to our pet food provider. This will allow them to notify you when your order is ready to collect.

Bicester Vets will not pass on your personal data to any third parties without your consent unless the law requires us to do so. We do not provide any personal data to the suppliers of the medicines we administer or the pet care products we sell without your explicit consent.

4. When you use our bicestervets.co.uk website
When someone visits bicestervets.co.uk we use a third-party service, Google Analytics, to collect standard internet log information and details of visitor behaviour patterns. We do this to find out things like the number of visitors to the various parts of the website. This information is processed in a way which does not identify anyone.

We use cookies, which are small text files that are placed on your computer when you visit. We do this to make our website work more efficiently and to promote our news, products and services on social media. Visit bicestervets.co.uk/cookies for information on how to manage your browser’s cookie settings and view more information on how we use them and why.

Bicester Vets uses a third-party service to help maintain the security and performance of our website. To deliver this service it processes the IP addresses (a number assigned to each of your devices connected to the internet by your broadband provider) of visitors to the Bicester Vets website.

We provide contact forms on our website and collect users’ personal information to help us complete certain tasks. Each form details the information required and an explanation of what the form is for. For general enquiries, once an enquiry has been dealt with, the data is deleted in line with Bicester Vets procedures.

Google Maps
We use Google Maps to give users the opportunity of visiting our business location. Google Maps only uses cookies to enable you to use the functionality of their map software. No personal information is stored on our website through the use of Google Maps.

External Links
Even though this website seeks to provide quality, safe and relevant external links, users ought to apply a policy of caution before following any external web links from this website. Such links are followed at the user’s own risk. The website owners can neither guarantee nor verify the contents of any externally linked website despite their very best efforts.

The website owners cannot be held liable for any damages or implications as a result of visiting any external links mentioned. We encourage you to be cautious and to read the privacy statements of each and every website that collects your information.

Social media
Interactions made through external social media services that this website and the practice participate with are subject to the terms and conditions as well as the privacy policies held with each social media service.

Users are encouraged to use social media platforms sensibly and with due care and attention in respect of their own privacy and personal details. We will never ask for sensitive information through social media services and encourage users wishing to discuss sensitive details to get in contact through primary communication channels like phoning us or e-mail.

We reserve the right to publish client pet photos and reviews from our practice Facebook page on our latest news website Blog posts and other social media such as Google Plus. Should you wish any pet photos be removed from our website or social media pages, please contact our web developer in the first instance at info@vetwebsites.co.uk and the required image/s will be removed straight away.

Disclosure of personal data to our service providers
We may pass on your personal data to service providers contracted to Bicester Vets in the course of dealing with you. They act as a data processor on our behalf and are obliged under contract to keep your details secure, and only use them to fulfil the services they provide on our behalf. When they no longer need your data to fulfil this service, they dispose of it in line with Bicester Vets procedures.

How long do we process your data for?
Bicester Vets is required to retain information in accordance with the law, such as information needed for income tax and audit purposes. We also keep client records to comply with our professional liability insurance.

In both cases we keep client records and transactions for a minimum of seven years. This includes full name, address, email address and telephone number, but excludes bank account details.

After 7 years of client inactivity we will redact all personal data from our records leaving only a surname attached to the account and pet clinical record (clients often seek pet clinical data many years after ceasing to an active client of the practice).

Your rights as a data subject
At any point while we are in possession of or processing your personal data, you the data subject, have the following rights – for avoidance of doubt “personal data” does not include “clinical records”:
• Right of access – you have the right to request a copy of the information that we hold about you.
You can do that by contacting Bicester Vets’ Data Protection Manager on 01869 252077. If we do hold information about you we will:
• give you a description of it
• tell you why we are holding it
• tell you who it could be disclosed to
• let you have a copy of the information in an intelligible form.

Please note that you will need to provide proof of identity – a current passport or driving licence.
• Right of rectification – you have a right to correct data that we hold about you that is inaccurate or incomplete.
• Right to be forgotten – in certain circumstances you can ask for the data we hold about you to be erased from our records.
• Right to restriction of processing – where certain conditions apply to have a right to restrict the processing.
• Right of portability – you have the right to have the data we hold about you transferred to another organisation.
• Right to object – you have the right to object to certain types of processing such as direct marketing.
• Right to object to automated processing, including profiling – you also have the right to be subject to the legal effects of automated processing or profiling.
• Right to judicial review: in the event that Bicester Vets refuses your request under rights of access, we will provide you with a reason as to why. You have the right to complain as outlined below.

Complaints
We take the processing of your personal data very seriously and are here to help with any concerns you may have. Please contact the Data Protection Manager at Bicester Vets if you have any concerns 01869 252077.

If you are still not happy with how your personal data is being processed by Bicester Vets or how your complaint has been handled, you also have the right to lodge a complaint directly with the Information Commissioners Office at https://ico.org.uk/concerns/ or by calling 0303 123 1113.

Download this Privacy Notice as a PDF

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