Privacy Policy

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Privacy Notice  

We are committed to protecting and respecting your privacy.  

This Privacy Notice, together with the Terms and Conditions, describes the relationship between The Countryside Vet Ltd and your data –how and why it is acquired, how it is used and processed, the conditions under which we may disclose it to others, and how it is securely stored. It will demonstrate our respect for your data regarding security and compliance with current data protection legislation, and in particular, the General Data Protection Regulation. By engaging with us to provide veterinary services, or visiting our website, you accept and consent to the practices described in this policy. 

We may collect and process the following data about you: name, address, email address, telephone number, financial information (including bank details and insurance information), and preferences/interests. We also collect the following data about your animals: personal details and descriptions, photographs, information necessary for contemporaneous and detailed clinical records.  

You may give us personal data by filling in forms on our website, or communication via telephone, email, text, social media, face-to-face or otherwise. 

If you fail to provide correct personal data, or under the terms of this contract we have with you, you fail to provide that accurate data when requested, we may not be able to perform the contract or provide you with goods or services. In this case, we may have to cancel a product or service. 

We also receive personal information indirectly, via communications with other professional services, such as transfer of clinical records from your primary/previous veterinary practice, and referral letters.  

We process your data to provide the services and products defined in the terms and conditions and services page of this website. Our legal basis for the processing of the personal data consists of: 

• Article 6.1(a) – “the data subject has given consent to the processing of his or her personal data for one or more specific purposes;” 
• Article 6.1(b) – “processing is necessary for the performance of a contract to which the data subject is a party or in order to take steps at the request of the data subject prior to entering into a contract;” 
• Article 6.1(c) – “processing is necessary for compliance with a legal obligation to which the controller is subject;” 
• Article 6.1(f) “processing is necessary for the purposes of the legitimate interests pursued by the controller or by a third party, except where such interests are overridden by the interests or fundamental rights and freedoms of the data subject which require protection of personal data, in particular where the data subject is a child.” 
• Article 6.4(e) – “the existence of appropriate safeguards, which may include encryption or pseudonymisation.” 

On this legal basis your personal data enables us to form a contract with you to provide our veterinary services, to serve our legitimate business interests, and provide marketing only where consent has been given. 

We comply with our obligations by keeping personal data up to date; by storing and destroying it securely; by not collecting or retaining excessive amounts of data; by protecting personal data from loss, misuse, unauthorised access and disclosure and by ensuring that appropriate technical measures are in place to protect personal data. 

We use your personal data for the following purposes, relative to “lawfulness of process”: 

• Registration 
• Maintenance and administration of accurate customer records 
• Accounting, invoicing and sales 
• Collection of owed monies (including debt recovery agencies)  
• Service and liaison with suppliers & contractors on your behalf 
• To offer occasional marketing and promotional opportunities that we think you will be interested in 
• To improve our overall service to you – through our direct contact and our website(s) 

Whenever you are asked to fill in a form, you must ensure you click to indicate whether you do or do not want the information to be used by anybody for direct marketing purposes. If you have agreed to us using your personal information for direct marketing purposes, you may change your mind at any time by writing. We will not sell, distribute or lease your personal information to third parties unless we have your permission or are required by law to do so.  

We may share the information about you defined above with certain categories of third parties to enable us to provide the products and services defined in our Terms & Conditions. These include: 

• Insurance companies when submitting claims on your behalf 
• Professional Indemnity Insurance providers  
• Other professional and legal advisors 
• Our out-of-hours veterinary practice and associated in hours 'bricks and mortar' practice
• Crematoriums 
• Your primary ‘bricks and mortar’ practice vets requesting histories and when sending case reports for their records 
• Specialist clinics, veterinary laboratories, or other providers who support us in providing veterinary services to your pet  

Where we share your information with third parties, we ensure they only receive the information they need to fulfil their services to us. 

We will retain information about you for as long as we have a legitimate business interest and legal obligations to do so. After this your information will be securely destroyed where possible or at least anonymised where destruction is technically impossible. 

Your Rights 

Under the GDPR you have the following rights over your information: 

• The right to request a copy of your personal data which we hold about you; 
• The right to request that we correct any personal data if it is found to be inaccurate or out of date; 
• The right to request your personal data is erased where it is no longer necessary for us to retain such data; 
• The right to withdraw your consent to the processing at any time; 
• The right to demand that we limit the processing of your data​ if you think the data is incorrect, if you prefer us to cease processing rather than delete your data, when we no longer need to use your personal data for the purpose for which it was collected, but it is still required for the fulfilment, exercise or defence of rights in court or for legal purposes, or if you want to check that our legal basis for processing the data does not impact your rights. 
• The right to request that the data controller provide the data subject with his/her personal data and where possible, to transmit that data directly to another data controller, (known as the right to data portability), (where applicable); 
• The right, where there is a dispute in relation to the accuracy or processing of your personal data, to request a restriction is placed on further processing; 
• The right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioners Office 
• The right to rescind your consent​ 
• The right to opt out of receiving direct marketing information from us, which will not be made without previously having provided consent/ or opted-in for marketing purposes. You can change your preferences or completely unsubscribe by emailing us and we will process your request at the earliest opportunity.  

If you contact us to exercise any of these rights we may ask for information about you to positively identify you and verify that your request is lawful and valid. 

There exists no statutory requirement for a Data Protection Officer (DPO) for The Countryside Vet Ltd.  

Any changes to our privacy policy in the future will be posted on this page. 

Cookies & IP Addresses 

Information of visits to our website and the pages and resources that are accessed, including, but not limited to: traffic data, location data and other communication data that may assist us in understanding how visitors use our site. This may also include the resources that you access, and information about where you are on the internet including the domain type, IP address and URL that you came from. This information may be collected and used for internal research purposes only and to improve our customer service. 

You can set your browser to refuse all or some browser cookies, or to alert you when websites set or access cookies. If you disable or refuse cookies, please note that some parts of this website may become inaccessible or not function properly. 

Disclaimers and limitation of liability 

To the extent permitted by law, we will not be liable for any indirect or consequential loss or damage whatever (including without limitation loss of business, opportunity, data, profits) arising out of or in connection with the use of the Website. 

Nothing in our terms and conditions shall exclude or limit our liability for death or personal injury caused to a human being or render us liable for any indirect or consequential loss, which liability shall be excluded to the maximum extent permitted by law. 

Terms of Website Use 

The use of this website is subject to the following terms of use: 

The content of the pages of this website is for your general information and use only. It is subject to change without notice. 

Neither we nor any third parties provide any warranty or guarantee as to the accuracy, timeliness, performance, completeness or suitability of the information and materials found or offered on this website for any particular purpose. You acknowledge that such information and materials may contain inaccuracies or errors and we expressly exclude liability for any such inaccuracies or errors to the fullest extent permitted by law. 

Your use of any information or materials on this website is entirely at your own risk, for which we shall not be liable. It shall be your own responsibility to ensure that any products, services or information available through this website meet your specific requirements. 

This website contains material which is owned by or licensed to us. This material includes, but is not limited to, the design, layout, look, appearance and graphics. Reproduction is prohibited other than in accordance with the copyright notice, which forms part of these terms and conditions. 

All trademarks reproduced in this website, which are not the property of, or licensed to the operator, are acknowledged on the website.

Unauthorised use of this website may give rise to a claim for damages and/or be a criminal offence. 

From time to time this website may also include links to other websites. These links are provided for your convenience to provide further information. They do not signify that we endorse the website(s). We have no responsibility for the content of the linked website(s). 

Your use of this website and any dispute arising out of such use of the website is subject to the laws of England, Scotland and Wales. 

The website makes no warranty that the functionality of the Website will be uninterrupted or error free, that defects will be corrected or that the Website or the server that makes it available are free of viruses or anything else which may be harmful or destructive. 

Our website contains links to other websites of interest. However, once you have used these links to leave our site, you should note that we do not have any control over that other website. Therefore, we cannot be responsible for the protection and privacy of any information which you provide whilst visiting such sites and such sites are not governed by this privacy statement. You should exercise caution and look at the privacy statement applicable to the website in question.