Windmill Veterinary Centre Privacy and Cookies Policy
Protecting your personal details including those from our website.
This privacy policy explains how Windmill Veterinary Centre Limited and www.windmillvets.co.uk uses and protects the personal information that it holds about patients and clients. Our policy and our website complies with the new GDPR laws and requirements. Your privacy is taken very seriously and we are dedicated to handling your information in a secure and responsible manner. Windmill Veterinary Centre is a “controller” for the purposes of data protection laws.
You can visit the majority of our website without revealing any personal information about yourself. However, there are times when we need to collect information so we can provide the services that you request. We may keep this information in a database.
What is personal information and how do we collect it?
Personal information broadly means information that identifies (or which could, with other information that we hold or are likely to hold) identify a living individual. This includes any information provided to us by, or on behalf of you, in relation to the services we provide to your pets.
a) Use of cookies
Cookies are small files saved to the hard drive of the user’s device, which track, save and store information regarding the user’s interactions and usage of our website. This enables the website, through its server, to produce a more tailored experience for site users. “Assumed consent” is used – if the user is unhappy about the use of cookies they can simply leave the website.
Most modern browsers allow you to control your cookie settings. You can disable them completely by editing your browser settings, however in doing this you may be limiting the functionality that is displayed on our website and also a large population of websites on the internet that use cookies to serve their content.
To learn how to disable cookies on browsers please click here https://support.google.com/accounts
b) Website analytics
Each time a user visits our website, web analytics software, provided by a third party, generates an anonymous analytics cookie.
This is for statistical purposes and includes information such as most visited pages, types of browsers used to access our site, technology used, referring sites, IP addresses, geographical and demographic information. The information collected is not linked to any personally identifiable information
c) Completion of our online forms
We collect information about you when you complete any of our online forms or provide us with feedback. The information we require from you will be indicated on the form as required. It helps us if you provide the other information we ask for but you are under no obligation to do so.
What types of personal information might we hold on you?
We collect and process the information about you that you provide by either; filling in forms, corresponding with us in person, by telephone, email or otherwise. The personal information we hold about you includes; name, title, contact details (eg address, postcode, telephone numbers and email address), second point of contact details, relevant insurance details and details of your pets. No financial details are held by us, except in exceptional circumstances when a payment plan has been agreed between us. No financial information is held on our computer system or in any electronic form.
Why do we hold this information and how do we use it?
We use your personal information for the following purposes:
- To be able to provide veterinary services to your pets
- To deliver the information you request
- To enable you to contact us, for you to be involved with posts online or be included in other marketing activities eg vaccination reminders
- To provide you with further information from us.
- For internal record keeping
- For funding, statistical, accounting and reference purposes
- Complying with our legal obligations, relevant industry and professional rules and regulations and any applicable voluntary codes
- Complying with demands or requests made by relevant regulators, government departments, law enforcement, tax authorities, disputes or litigation
We will keep the amount of personal information collected and the extent of any processing to a minimum. We will only process “sensitive” or “special category” information (ie your health) where you have explicitly consented to this or where there is an alternative legal basis for processing this information under Data Protection law. We will never sell your personal information to a third party.
Your consent to our sharing of information may be verbal or written.
Who do we share your information with?
- Vets Now and/or Hampden Veterinary Hospital for out of hours care if required
- Professional advisors, including Accountants and Debt Collection Agencies (if applicable)
- Police (when required)
- Insurers (when required)
- Referral Centres (once you have consented to a referral process for your pet)
- Laboratory service (if samples are required for analysis)
- Treatment centres (if referral is recommended or requested)
- Veterinary practices (if you move house, seek a second opinion, or leave our practice for other reasons)
- Bereavement service (dependent only on service requested)
- RSPCA (when required only) for the welfare of an animal
How long do we keep your data?
We will hold your personal information on our systems for as long as you remain a client of the Windmill Veterinary Centre. If you cease to be a client and/or move out of our area, we will inactivate your records and remove it from being routinely accessed. However, in case of any further queries that may arise about the services you received whilst you were a client, i.e. from insurance companies requiring a full history of your pet, we will retain your details. We are required under UK tax law to keep your basic personal data (name, address, contact details) for a minimum of 6 years. Generally, however, such personal data held on the practice management system will not be accessed after this time but is likely to be retained.
Clinical records (excluding radiographs) remain the property of the client and at any time a request may be made for a copy of the clinical records.
What are your rights?
You may have access to your personal data held at any time on request. If at any point you believe that the personal information we hold is incorrect, you can request to have it corrected or deleted. In certain circumstances you can request to have your data deleted or removed. You can also restrict the processing or your data in certain circumstances. Under the GDPR rulings, we would inform our users within 72 hours if any breach of security occurs that might compromise your data.
Opting out
If you no longer wish to receive communications from the Windmill Veterinary Centre, you can opt out of receiving them. You may do this in a number of ways:
By email: info@windmillvets.co.uk
Click unsubscribe from e-mails that you receive from us.
Write to us at: Windmill Veterinary Centre Limited, 33 High Street, Winslow, Bucks. MK18 3HE stating your full name and contact details.
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 our 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 will ask your permission to publish pet photos and news on our practice Facebook. On giving your permission, should you wish any pet photos be removed from our website or social media pages, please contact us either by telephone or email (info@windmillvets.co.uk) and the required image/s will be removed straight away.
We will never use client pet photos in any of our advertising features without prior client consent.
We aim to keep the Personal Data we hold about you accurate and up to date. If you tell us that we are holding any inaccurate personal data about you, we will delete it or correct it promptly. Please e-mail us at info@windmillvets.co.uk or write to us at Windmill Veterinary Centre Limited, 33 High Street, Winslow, Bucks, MK18 3HE to update your personal data.
We keep our privacy policy under regular review and it may change at any time.