Privacy notice

Welcome to IVC Evidensia (“we”, “us” or “our”).   

Choosing us as your veterinary services provider means you have placed a great deal of trust in us, and we take this responsibility very seriously. This means we are committed to respecting your privacy and 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 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


Important information and who we are


Purpose of this privacy notice

This privacy notice aims to give you information about how we collect and process your personal data in relation to your use of our services, including your use of our websites, Apps and social media accounts (collectively referred to as “our Sites”) and when you contact us. 


Controller

For the purpose of the UK General Data Protection Regulation, Independent Vetcare Ltd, of The Chocolate Factory, Keynsham, Bristol BS31 2AU is the data controller who is responsible for your personal data. 

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:

  • By telephone - 01225 489829
  • By post - FAO: Data Protection Officer, The Chocolate Factory, Keynsham, Bristol, BS31 2AU
  • By email - privacy@ivcevidensia.com.   


Third-party links

Our Sites 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.


The personal data we collect and how we use it

We process the following categories of persona data: 


To buy your practice

  • We obtain your full name, contact preferences, phone number and best time to call (if you prefer to be contacted by phone) or email address (if you prefer to be contacted by email) and any other personal information that you provide in the “additional information” free-text box to discuss buying your practice from you. 
  • 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 discuss buying your practice from you. Any special category data you provide will be deleted as soon as possible.  


To provide you with referral veterinary services

  • If you enter or allow us to use your location, we will search for a referral services, practices, facilities and specialists near to this location. 


To provide customer service to you

  • We use your name, telephone number (if you contact us by telephone), email address (if you contact us by email), social media account details (if you contact us through our social media page) and any other personal data you provide us with to respond to you or resolve a complaint. 
  • 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 develop and improve our Sites and ensure they operate properly

  • 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 Sites and download errors) to ensure our Sites are secure and work on your device. We also use this information for management information and reporting duties. 
  • We use Hotjar to ask you about your experience when visiting our Sites. We use the information that you provide to understand your experience and learn how we can improve our Sites. 
  • We may record any calls made to and from us to provide quality service, training and assurance to our employees and clients. 


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 use different methods to collect data including through:

  • Direct interactions - you may give us any of the above information when you use our Sites or when corresponding with us via telephone, post or email. We may also collect data if you attend any events that we are participating in.
  • Automated technologies or interactions - as you interact with our website, we will automatically collect some technical data about your equipment, browsing actions and patterns. We collect this personal data by using cookies, server logs and other similar technologies. We may also receive this technical data about you if you visit other websites which employ our cookies - click here,  to read more about our cookies.

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.


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 name or contact details), this may delay our discussions or make it impossible for us to contact you about buying your practice from you.


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 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 your 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 applicable law.


Who we share your personal data with

We share your personal data with the following categories of companies so that we can provide the service you have requested from us. 

  • Companies that help us to form a contract with you such as:
    • 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
  • Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons (where it is in the public interest or the interests of animal welfare)  
  • Indemnity providers (Veterinary Defence Society) 
  • Other professional and legal advisors
  • Debt recovery agencies
  • Law enforcement and fraud prevention agencies 
  • Companies approved by you (such as social media sites) 
  • 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. 


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.


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 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 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.


Data retention

We will only retain your 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.  


Being in control of your own information 

Under the GDPR, 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 complainto 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. 


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 06 December 2022.