Privacy Policy

Welcome to My Family Vet’s Privacy Notice. 

We respect your privacy and are committed to protecting your personal data.

It is important that you read this policy carefully so that you understand how we look after and process your personal data, and so that you are aware of your privacy rights and how the law protects you.  

What is included in this policy?

  1. Important information and who we are
  2. The personal data we collect and how we use it
  3. Who we share your personal data with
  4. International transfers
  5. Keeping your personal data secure
  6. Data retention
  7. Being in control of your own information
  8. Changes to this privacy notice and your duty to inform us of changes

1. Important information and who we are 

Purpose of this privacy notice

This privacy notice aims to give you information on how we collect and process your personal data through your use of www.myfamilyvets.co.uk and www.shop.myfamilyvets.co.uk (collectively referred to as “our Sites”) and our social media pages, and any communication you have with us or one of our veterinary practices. 

Controller

For the purpose of the UK General Data Protection Regulation, Independent Vetcare Limited, of The Chocolate Factory, Keynsham, Bristol BS31 2AU, is the data controller who is responsible for your personal data (collectively referred to as “IVC Evidensia”, we”, “us” or “our”). 

We are registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office in the UK with reference number Z3212973.

Contact details

We have appointed a Data Protection Officer who is responsible for overseeing questions in relation to this privacy notice. 

If you have any questions about this notice, including any requests to exercise your legal rights, please contact us:

Third-party links

Our Sites and social media pages may include links to third-party websites, plug-ins and applications. 

In some instances, we may be “joint controllers” with this third party. This means that we might be jointly responsible with that third party for determining the collection and/or use of your personal information with this organisation. 

Clicking on those links or enabling those connections may allow third parties to collect or share data about you.

When you leave our Sites or social media pages, we encourage you to read the privacy notice of company whose websites and pages you visit.

2. The personal data we collect and how we use it

We process the following categories of personal data:

To process and deliver your order and manage returns

  • We ask for your name, email address, telephone number and delivery address to place and deliver your order to you. 
  • We ask for your billing address and payment card details to validate your payment method and accept your order. 
  • We ask for your surname and postcode to apply your Pet Health Club discount to your order. 

To provide other services to you

  • If you use our Sites to find a vet and enter or allow us to use your location, we will search for one of our practices nearby to this location to show you your nearest My Family Vets practice.
  • If you click on book a video consultation, you will be taken to the website of one of our group companies, Vets Now, to book an appointment using their Video Vets Now service. To understand how Vets Now uses your personal data, please read their privacy notice on their website. 

To provide customer service to you

  • We use your name, contact details and any other information that you provide us with when contacting us through our Sites or social media account, via email or telephone or when visiting a practice to respond to your query or resolve a complaint.
  • We may use your social media data to respond or react to a post where you have tagged or sent a message to one of our group companies.
  • We do not intend to collect or process special category data however, if you voluntarily provide us with this information, we will only process it in order to respond to your query. Any special category data you provide will be deleted as soon as your query is resolved. 

To inform you about products and services that may interest you

  • If you provide us with your consent, we will use your email address, pixel tracking, cookie data and preferences to receiving marketing communication to show you information relating to offers, services and pet health advice online. Click here to read about how we use pixels and cookies.

To keep in touch with you

  • We use your full name, contact details and postal address to send you information about your order and important business information such as product recalls.

To ensure our website and services we offer you operate properly

  • When you use our Sites, we use technical information about your device (such as your IP address, browser type and version, time zone setting and location, browser plug-in types, versions and screen sizes, operation system and platform, URL clickstream to and from our website and download errors) to ensure the website is secure and works on your device. We also use this information to improve our Sites and for management information and reporting duties. 

To develop and improve our products and services

  • We use your name, email address, billing address, delivery address, telephone number, details about your orders and how you have interacted with our Sites, services and communications to analyse what you have bought and searched for and learn what pages to target our adverts to.
  • We use your survey and feedback responses to improve our Sites, services and products. 

To comply with our legal obligations

  • We may use the data that we collect about you to ensure we comply with any legal obligations that may be imposed on us.  
  • We will maintain records to meet regulatory and tax requirements.

We use different methods to collect data including through:

a) Direct interactions - you may give us any of the above information by filling in forms on our Sites or corresponding with us via social media, telephone, post or email. We may also collect data if you attend any events that we are participating in.

b) Automated technologies or interactions - as you interact with our Sites, we will automatically collect technical data about your equipment, browsing actions and patterns. We collect this personal data by using cookies, server logs and other tracking technologies. We may also receive this technical data about you if you visit other websites which employ our cookies - click here to read about how we use pixels and cookies.

c) Third parties - we may receive information about you from third parties such as: 

  • Providers of technical, payment and delivery services
  • Advertising networks (based on your cookie consent)
  • Analytics providers 
  • Other IVC Evidensia companies

Where we have received information from other sources, we will have informed you when we collected that data that it may be shared internally and combined with the data that we collect about you from your use of our Sites, Facebook page or other social media account.  

Lawful basis for processing your personal data

Depending on the processing activity, we rely on at least one of the following lawful bases for processing your personal data under the UK GDPR:

  • Consent - where you have given us your consent (or explicit consent where appropriate)
  • Contract - it is necessary for entering into or the performance of a contract
  • Legal Obligation - it is needed to comply with a legal obligation that is imposed on us 
  • Legitimate Interest - it is necessary for our legitimate interest (or those of a third party) and your interests and fundamental rights do not override those interests 
  • Vital interest - it is necessary in an emergency situation, such as emergency medical care 
  • Public task - it is necessary for the performance of a specific task that is in the public interest that is set out in law

If you fail to provide your information

If you fail to provide certain information when requested (such as your payment card details), we will not be able to place your order or provide you with the service you have requested.

Marketing

You can ask us to stop sending you marketing messages at any time by clicking “unsubscribe” on our emails. If you have provided your consent, click here for information on how you can reject cookies and opt out of targeted advertising online. 

We may ask you to confirm or update your marketing preferences if you ask us to provide further products and services in the future, or if there are changes in the law, regulation, or the structure of our business.

Change of purpose

We will only use your personal data for the purposes for which we collected it, unless we reasonably consider that we need to use it for another reason and that reason is compatible with the original purpose. If you wish you wish to get an explanation as to how the processing for the new purpose is compatible with the original purpose, please contact us at privacy@ivcevidensia.com.   

If we need to use for personal data for an unrelated purpose, we will notify you and we will explain the legal basis which allows us to do so. 

Please note, we may process your personal data without your knowledge or consent, in compliance with the above rules, where this is required or permitted by law.  

3. Who we share your personal data with

We share your personal data with the following categories of companies so that we can process and deliver your order: 

  • Companies that assist us in the order process such as:
    • Payment service providers, including Stripe and Easy Direct Debits Ltd
    • Fulfilment and delivery companies 
  • Communications partners that enable us to send you marketing emails
  • Technology service providers that support our IT, host our websites and help us analyse the data we hold)
  • IVC Evidensia companies where they assist us in providing our services to you
  • Other professional and legal advisors
  • Law enforcement and fraud prevention agencies 
  • Companies approved by you (such as social media sites)
  • Advertisers and advertising networks that require the data to select and serve relevant adverts to you (we will only send marketing communications to you where you have consented to receiving them from us). This includes: 
    • Google Display Network
    • Facebook Ad Manager
    • TikTok
  • Where any part of our business is outsourced, sold, or merged, and where permitted by law, we will share your data with the new provider so that we may continue to provide services to you. They may use your personal data in the same way as set out in this policy. We will of course inform you of any such change and give you an opportunity to opt out of your data being shared with a new provider

Before we share your data with any third party, we will check:

  • They can provide sufficient guarantees regarding the confidentiality and security of your personal data;
  • We have a written contract with them which defines how they can use your data, how they can protect it and what to do with it when our relationship with them is terminated; and
  • We only share the data that they need in order to fulfil their services to us. 

4. International transfers

Whenever we transfer your personal data out of the UK, we ensure a similar degree of protection is afforded to it by ensuring at least one of the following safeguards is implemented:

  • We will only transfer your personal data to countries that have been deemed to provide an adequate level of protection for personal data. 
  • Where we use certain service providers, we may use specific contracts approved for use in the UK which give personal data the same protection it has in the UK. 

Please contact us at privacy@ivcevidensia.com if you want further information on the specific mechanism used by us when transferring your personal data out of the UK.

5. Keeping your personal data secure

We have put in place appropriate security measures to prevent your information from being accidentally lost, used or accessed in an unauthorised way, altered or disclosed. 

We also limit access to your personal data to those employees, agents, contractors and other third parties who have a business need to know. They will only process your personal data on our instructions and they are subject to a duty of confidentiality. 

We have also put in place procedures to deal with any suspected personal data breach and we will notify you and any applicable regulator of a breach where we are legally required to do so. 

If you would like to know more about how to protect your information and your computer and devices against fraud, identity theft, viruses and other online problems, please visit Get Safe Online. Get Safe Online is supported by HM Government and leading businesses.

6. Data retention

We will only retain your personal data for as long as reasonably necessary to fulfil the purposes we collected it for, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, regulatory, tax or reporting requirements. 

7. Being in control of your own information

Under the UK GDPR and Data Protection Act 2018 you have some important rights available to you. In summary, these include:

  • Be informed about how we use your personal data (hopefully this privacy notice explains it all)
  • Access to the personal data that we hold about you 
  • Request that we transfer elements of your personal data to another service provider
  • Require us to correct any mistakes in the personal data which we hold about you
  • Ask us to erase your personal data in certain situations 
  • Withdraw your consent at any time where the processing of your personal data is based on consent (for example, unsubscribing to our direct marketing communications)
  • Object to or restrict or suspend us from processing your personal data in certain circumstances (for example, if you want to restrict processing whilst we are establishing the accuracy of your personal data)
  • Request not to be subjected to automated decision-making that significantly affects you
  • The right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (this is the UK’s data protection regulator, and you can do this via the ICO’s website)

If you want to exercise your rights, please contact us at privacy@ivcevidensia.com. 

8. Changes to this privacy notice and your duty to inform us of changes

We keep our privacy notice under regular review. 

This version was last updated on 11 August 2023.

It is important that the personal data we hold about you is accurate and current. Please keep us informed if your personal data changes during your relationship with us by contacting info@myfamilyvets.co.uk or calling us on 01761 250 850 between 9:00am - 5:00pm Monday to Friday. 

Free Delivery

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