Privacy Policy
Last revised: 4th Nov 2021.
The General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) affects all businesses across the EU and there has been mandatory compliance since the 25th May 2018.
Cara Veterinary Group cares about your privacy.
Our Privacy Policy is intended to describe to you how and what data we collect, and how and why we use your personal data. It also describes options we provide for you to access, update or otherwise take control of your personal data that we process. This policy explains how and for what purposes we use the information collected about you via this website. Please read this privacy policy carefully. By using this website and any Veterinary Services we offer via this website, you are agreeing to be bound by this policy in respect of the information collected about you via this website.
If at any time you have questions about our practices or any of your rights described below, you may reach our Data Protection Officer (“DPO”) by contacting us at info@caravetgroup.com. This inbox is actively monitored and managed so that we can deliver an experience that you can confidently trust.
What information do we collect?
We collect information so that we can provide the best possible experience when you utilise our veterinary services (including our website). Much of what you likely consider personal data is collected directly from you when you:
(1) Register as a client with us i.e. billing information, including name, address, phone number and email;
As we have a duty of care to your animal(s), we consider all communications relating to your animal’s treatment to be classed as ‘Legitimate Interest’. Therefore we will continue to contact you in that regard.
If you visit either of facilities and manually tick on our GDPR form that you consent to also receiving ‘Information’ and/or ‘Marketing’ from us, Cara Veterinary Group will use the details provided by you to contact you for the purposes indicated by you.
(2) Complete online contact forms, request newsletters or other information from us (i.e. email);
When you have correspondence with us that you initiate through the forms on our site, and you tick the box indicating that you agree to our Terms of Use and this Privacy Policy, we will consider that explicit consent that you agree to the above.
On our website forms, when you tick the box indicating "Yes please, I'd like to hear about offers, products and services", Cara Veterinary Group will use the information you provide on this form to email you our Newsletter containing details about our latest news, information, upcoming offers and details about our services.
We use MailChimp as our marketing automation platform. In order to be able to send you our Newsletter, your email address, first name and last name will be added to our Mailchimp mailing list. You can remove your email address from our Newsletter mailing list in Mailchimp by clicking the unsubscribe link in the footer of any Newsletter that you receive from us.
By ticking "Yes please, I'd like to hear about offers, products and services" and accepting our Terms of Use and this Privacy Policy, you acknowledge that the email address, first name and last name you provide to us will be transferred to MailChimp for processing in accordance with their Privacy Policy and Terms.
If however, you tick the box indicating "No thanks, I don't want to know about offers, products and services", we will honour that you have not given explicit consent for the above and you will not be added to our Newsletter mailing list.
(3) Participate in competitions and surveys, apply for a job, or otherwise participate in activities we promote that might require information about you.
We also collect additional information when delivering our veterinary services to you to ensure necessary and optimal performance. These methods of collection may not be as obvious to you, so we wanted to highlight and explain below a bit more about what these might be (as they vary from time to time) and how they work:
Account related information is collected in association with your use of our veterinary services, such as your Client ID number, purchases, veterinary services, information requests, insurance requests and notes or details explaining what you asked for and how we responded.
Cookies
This website uses cookies to ensure you get the best experience on our website. If you continue to use this site we will assume that you are happy with it. More information about cookies and details of how to manage or disable them can be found on www.aboutcookies.org.
Your device or browser may also enable you to control the collection of data from your device – see your device and browser instructions for more information in this respect.
Please note that if you choose to opt-out, you may lose some features and / or functionality of www.caravetgroup.com.
Cookies and similar technologies on our websites allow us to track your demographic information such as age, sex, geolocation, browsing behaviour, links clicked, your device type, and to collect various data, including analytics, about how you use and interact with our website. This allows us to provide you with a better experience on our website, and to collect, analyse and improve the performance of our veterinary services. We may also collect your location (IP address) so that we can improve the performance of our website.
A cookie is a small file which asks for permission to be placed in your web browser/computer hard drive. The file is added and the cookie helps us to measure and analyse: website traffic and visitor behaviour. Cookies allow web applications to respond to you as an “individual”. The web application can tailor its operations to your needs, likes, and dislikes by gathering and remembering information about your “preferences”. We use traffic log cookies to identify which pages are being used. This helps us to analyse data about web page traffic and improve our website in order to tailor it to your needs. We only use this information for statistical analysis purposes.
A cookie in no way gives us access to your computer or any sensitive information about you, other than the data you choose to share with us. Links to third-party websites on this website also use cookies. So by clicking on a link to a third party website, means that “your” actions will be tracked. If you do not wish for this to happen, please DO NOT click on any links you see on this website. We are not responsible for the privacy practices or the content of third-party sites. Please read the privacy policy of any website you visit.
Overall, cookies help us provide you with a better user experience, by enabling us to monitor which pages you find useful and which you do not.
Third-Party Tracking
To furthermore add transparency to this privacy policy, we feel that it’s important for us to disclose to you whether third-party companies and organisations are able to acquire and track your personally identifiable information through our website.
Google and various other websites that are listed below can track you through “this Site” as we use their services for social media, usage analysis and behaviour tracking purposes.
Google participates in the NAI opt-out program. You can visit this link to no longer be tracked by Google.
You can also visit the following sites to read their privacy policies and how they track individuals across the web:
Website analytics
We use multiple web analytics tools provided by service partners such as Google Analytics to collect information. This information includes specific data about your interactions with our content and links (including those of third-parties, such as social media plugins) contained within the website, Internet Protocol (IP) address, browser type and settings, the date and time the website was used, information about browser configuration and plugins, language preferences and cookie data, information about devices accessing the website, including type of device, what operating system is used, device settings, unique device identifiers and error data, and some of this data collected might be capable of and be used to approximate your location. We use the information provided by these tools to improve our website. These tools place persistent cookies in your browser to identify you as a unique user the next time you visit our website. Each cookie cannot be used by anyone other than the service provider (i.e. Google for Google Analytics). The information collected from the cookie may be transmitted to and stored by these service partners on servers in a country other than the country in which you reside. Though information collected does not include personal data such as name, address, billing information, etc., the information collected is used and shared by these service providers in accordance with their individual privacy policies. You can control the technologies we use by managing your settings through our Cookie Policy, the ‘cookie banners” that may be presented (depending on URL of website visited) when you first visit our webpages, or by utilising settings in your browser.
Sharing with trusted third parties
We may share your personal data with trusted third party service providers as necessary for them to perform services on our behalf, such as:
- Performing analysis of our Veterinary Services (including website) and customers demographics
- Communicating with you, i.e. by way of email
- Customer relationship management
We only share your personal data as necessary for any third party to provide the services as requested or as needed on our behalf. These third parties (and any subcontractors) are subject to strict data processing terms and conditions and are prohibited from utilising, sharing or retaining your personal data for any purpose other than as they have been specifically contracted for (or without your consent).
Supplemented Data
If you provide us personal information about others, or if others give us your information, we will only use that information for the specific reason for which it was provided to us.
How we utilise information
We strongly believe in both minimising the data we collect and limiting its use and purpose to only that
(1) for which we have been given permission,
(2) as necessary to deliver the veterinary services you use, purchase or interact with, or
(3) as we might be required or permitted for legal compliance or other lawful purposes.
These uses include:
Delivering, improving, updating and enhancing the Veterinary Services we provide to you.
We collect various information relating to your purchase, use and/or interactions with our Services. We utilise this information to:
- Improve and optimise the operation and performance of our Veterinary Services (including our website)
- Diagnose problems with and identify any security risks, errors, or needed enhancements to our Veterinary Services (including our website)
- Detect and prevent fraud and abuse of our Veterinary Services (including our website) and systems
- Collecting aggregate statistics about the use of the Veterinary Services (including our website)
- Understand and analyse how you use our Veterinary Services (including our website) and what products and services are most relevant to you
Often, much of the data collected is aggregated or statistical data about how individuals use our Veterinary Services (including website), and is not linked to any personal data, but to the extent it is itself personal data, or is linked or linkable to personal data, we treat it accordingly.
Communicating with you
We may contact you directly or through a third party service provider regarding products or services you have signed up for or purchased from us, such as necessary to deliver transactional or service related communications. We may also contact you with offers for additional services we think you’ll find valuable if you give us consent, or where allowed based upon legitimate interests. These contacts may include:
- Text (SMS) messages
- Telephone calls
However, please note you do not need to provide consent in order to use our services or purchase our goods.
You may also update your subscription preferences with respect to receiving communications from us and/or our partners by contacting privacy@caravetgroup.com.
Compliance with legal, regulatory and law enforcement requests. We cooperate with government and law enforcement officials and private parties to enforce and comply with the law. We will disclose any information about you to government or law enforcement officials or private parties as we, in our sole discretion, believe necessary or appropriate to respond to claims and legal process (such as subpoena requests), to protect our property and rights or the property and rights of a third party, to protect the safety of the public or any person, or to prevent or stop activity we consider to be illegal or unethical.
How we secure, store and retain your data
We follow generally accepted standards to store and protect the personal data we collect, both during transmission and once received and stored, including utilisation of encryption where appropriate.
We retain personal data only for as long as necessary to provide the veterinary services you have requested and thereafter for a variety of legitimate legal or business purposes. These might include retention periods:
mandated by law, contract or similar obligations applicable to our business operations;
for preserving, resolving, defending or enforcing our legal/contractual rights; or
needed to maintain adequate and accurate business and financial records.
If you have any questions about the security or retention of your personal data, you can contact us at info@caravetgroup.com.
Social Media Policy
Consent and data use will be covered by terms and conditions and privacy notices of each social media platform, to which both parties (you the visitor and Cara Vet Group) both independently agree to.
Age restrictions
Our Veterinary Services and website are available only for those over the age of 18. Our Services are not targeted to, intended to be consumed by or designed to entice individuals under the age of 18. If you know of or have reason to believe anyone under the age of 18 has provided us with any personal data, please contact us.
Your rights
You have rights under the GDPR:
(a) to access your personal data
(b) to be provided with information about how your personal data is processed
(c) to have your personal data corrected
(d) to have your personal data erased in certain circumstances
(e) to object to or restrict how your personal data is processed
(f) to have your personal data transferred to yourself or to another business in certain circumstances.
You have the right to take any complaints about how we process your personal data to the Data Protection Commissioner.
Contact Us
If you have any questions, concerns or complaints about our Privacy Policy, our practices or our Services, you may contact our Office of the DPO by email at info@caravetgroup.com. Alternatively, you may contact us by either of the following means:
By Mail: Attn: Data Protection Officer, Cara Veterinary Hospital, Unit 233, Blanchardstown Corporate Park 2, Ballycoolin, Dublin 15.
By Phone: (01) 885 3253.
We will respond to all requests, inquiries or concerns within thirty (30) days.