Your privacy is important to us. This Privacy Policy is where we explain to you what personal information is collected when you visit our site, how it is collected, how we may use that information, where we store it, how long we store it for, and how we protect it. We will also explain your rights in relation to your personal information.

Please read the following carefully to understand our views and practices regarding your personal information and how we may collect it and treat it.

Our Cookie Policy: You can find our cookie policy here, which explains more about how we may collect personal information about you via cookies (it also explains what cookies are).

Our Data Retention Policy: You can find out how long we may hold onto your personal information here.

If you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact us at hello@ashwoodvets.com or, if you prefer to call or write to us, then you can find our contact details at the bottom of this page.

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Who We Are

We are Ashwood Veterinary Ltd. our company number is NI1614068, and our registered office is at 69-71 Comber Road, Dundonald BT162AE. But, for the purposes of this Privacy Policy, it’s just easier if we refer to ourselves as “we” or “us”.

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What This Privacy Policy Governs?

This Privacy Policy applies to our website, www.ashwoodvets.com, and any other services that we may provide to you through our website (we’ll just call these “our services” for short).

In the context of this Privacy Policy “personal information” means information which, on its own or in combination with other information, can be used to identify you, in particular by reference to an identifier such as your name, your address, or location data.

Provided that you consent to us collecting your personal information then this Privacy Policy will govern how we may use that personal information.

Because we are a company located in Northern Ireland the personal information that you give us or that we collect from you will be held under Northern Irish and European Union data protection legislation (but we’ll just refer to this as “the legislation”). The legislation requires that we tell you that we are a data controller for your personal information or, in other words, we determine the purposes for which and the manner in which any of your personal information are, or are to be, processed by us.

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How You Consent To Us Collecting Your Personal Information

When you visit our site you should see a pop-up at the top of your screen directing you to this Privacy Policy and to our Cookie Policy.

By using our website clicking or selecting the “I Agree” button that appears in the that pop-up then you are demonstrating to us that you are freely giving us informed and specific consent for us to place cookies on your computer for the purposes specified in this Cookie Policy and you are accepting and consenting to the practices described.

Remember, our Cookie Policy and Data Retention Policy can be found here and here.

If you do not want us to place cookies on your machine, please adjust your browser settings.

Even if you do not click or select the “I Agree” button there is still some information that we may automatically collect about you – this normally isn’t personal information but rather technical information, including your IP address used to connect your computer, tablet, or mobile device to the Internet, your browser type and version, the time when you visit our site, your time zone setting, certain browser plug-in types and versions, operating system and platform. This type of information is sent by you to our site automatically and it isn’t something that we can prevent. We only use this information to administer our site including troubleshooting, load testing, traffic throughput, data analysis, performance testing, and for anonymised research and statistics purposes that we only use internally.

We will only hold your personal information as detailed in our Data Retention Policy.

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Information We May Collect

If you consent to us collecting your personal information then we may process the following data about you:

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Information you give to us:

You may give us personal information about you by filling in forms on our site or by corresponding with us by phone, e-mail or otherwise. This includes information you may provide to us when you register to use our site, subscribe to our services, search our site, participate in any discussion boards or other social media functions on our site, enter a competition, promotion or survey, and when you report a problem with our site.

The information you give us may include your name, address, e-mail address, phone number, IP address, insurance details and information, personal description, CV or resume, and photograph (as the case may be).

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Information we collect about you:

When you visit our site we may collect information about you, including which pages you have visited (including date and time) which services and pages you viewed or searched for, page response times, download errors, files downloaded, length of visits to certain pages, page interaction information (such as scrolling, clicks, and mouse-overs), and methods used to browse away from a page and any phone number used to call our customer service number.

The purpose of this information is to allow us to administer our site and for internal operations, including troubleshooting, data analysis, testing, research, improving our site to ensure that content is presented in the most effective manner for you and for your computer, and as part of our efforts to keep our site safe and secure.

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Information we receive from other sources:

We may receive information about you if you use any of the other sites we operate or the other services we provide. Data collected from any of the other sites we operate may be shared internally and combined with data collected on this site. We are also working closely with third parties (including, for example, business partners, and sub-contractors in technical, payment and delivery services, analytics providers, search information providers, and credit reference agencies) and may receive information about you from them.

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Information you may pass to third-parties outside our control:

On many of the pages on our site you will see ‘social buttons’. These enable you to share or bookmark pages on our site. These may include buttons for: Twitter, Google+, Pinterest, Facebook or other social features.

In order for us to implement these buttons on our site and connect them to the relevant social networks and external sites, there are scripts that are executed from domains owned by third-parties and outside of our control.

You should be aware that these sites are likely to be collecting information about what you are doing all around the Internet, including on our site. So if you click on any of these buttons, these sites will be registering that action and may use that information. In some cases these sites will be registering the fact that you are visiting our site, and the specific pages you are on, even if you don’t click on the button but are already or automatically logged into their services, like Google and Facebook.

We recommend that you check the respective policies of each of these sites to see how exactly they use your personal information and to find out how to opt out, or delete, such personal information.

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How We May Use Your Personal Information

When you give us your personal information then we may use it to:

1. Carry out our obligations from any contracts entered into between you and us and to provide you with information about our products and services that you request from us.

2. Provide you with information about other goods and services we offer that are similar to and incidental to those that you have already purchased or enquired about or to notify you about changes to our products or services.

3. Ensure that content from our site is presented in the most effective manner for you and for your computer.

If you provide us with your e-mail, telephone or mobile number then we will only contact you by electronic means (e-mail or SMS) with information about goods and services similar to those which were the subject of a previous service or sale, or negotiations of a service or sale to you.

If you do not wish to receive any information by electronic means then please get in touch with us.

We will not use your personal information for marketing purposes without your express consent.

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Marketing

If you opt-in to receive marketing information from us then, depending on what personal information we hold about you, we may decide to contact you via e-mail, SMS, telephone, or via the post. You may opt-in to receive general marketing information or we may ask you to opt-in on a case by case basis.

We will do our best to let you know what method or methods of communication we will use. Don’t forget, you can always opt-out from receiving marketing communications from us after you have opted-in or you can tell us that you only want to receive marketing communications in a particular manner, or about a particular product or service. Depending on the type of marketing campaign we might give you the ability to select how you would like to be contacted but this might not always be possible due to technical issues.

If you opt-in to receive marketing communication then we may need to pass your personal information to our select third party advertisers and partners. For example, we may need to pass some of your personal details if you enter into a promotion, survey, or enter a competition.

The purpose of opting into receiving marketing information is to help us better understand you and the services that you wish to receive from us. We will not knowingly sell your personal information as part of our marketing activities. We might also permit selected third parties to provide you with information about goods and services that we feel may interest you but this will only be in relation to goods and services similar to ours.

The current marketing and/or advertising organisations we use are:

• Facebook: To show you relevant content and promotional messages.

• Google Search Adwords: To show you relevant content and promotional messages.

• LinkedIn: To show you relevant content and promotional messages.

• Twitter: To show you relevant content and promotional messages.

• Vethelpdirect.co.uk: To give you the option to review your experience with us.

• Snapchat: To show you relevant content and promotional messages.

• Instagram: To show you relevant content and promotional messages.

• Active Campaign: To send you emails.

If you have opted-in to receive marketing communication but that organisation is not listed about then this might be because we are using that organisation or service on a one-off basis – in which case, we will let you know.

If you are receiving marketing communication in error or you have opted-out then please get in touch with us and we apologise for any inconvenience caused.

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Disclosure Of Your Information

We may share your personal information with any member of our group, which means our subsidiaries, our ultimate holding company and its subsidiaries. The reason for this is that different parts of our company or group are responsible for different functions within our business and we need to be able to freely pass your personal information within these various business units.

Although we may share your personal information within members of our group, this does not mean that we will use it for advertising or marketing purposes. Unless you opt-in to receive marketing communication we will not contact you unless it is necessary for us to get in touch with you. For example, we may need to get in touch with you if you purchased goods or services from us and we need to follow-up with you or if you asked us to provide you with further information about our services.

Please remember that our Cookies Policy covers matters such as using your personal information for analytics purposes.

In some cases we may disclose your information with select third-parties:

• We may anonymise and aggregate your information with other users (for example, we may track that 500 men aged under 30 have clicked on a specific page on our site on any given day). We may use such aggregate and anonymised information to help our advertisers and partners to reach the kind of audience they want to target (for example, women in postcode BT16 or ‘Belfast’).

• Credit reference agencies for the purpose of assessing your credit score where this is a condition of us entering into a contract with you.

• Debt collection agencies where you have breached a condition of any contract entered between us and you.

• If we or substantially all of our assets are acquired by a third party, in which case personal information held by us about you may be one of the transferred assets.

• If we are under a duty to disclose or share your personal information in order to comply with any legal obligation, or in order to enforce our agreements with you, or to protect our rights, property, or safety of our customers, our employees, or others.

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Where We Store Your Personal Information

The personal information that we collect from you will be stored within the United Kingdom and the European Economic Area.

All personal information you provide to us is stored on our secure servers. Any online payment transactions will be encrypted using Secure Socket Layer (SSL) technology. Where we have given you (or where you have chosen) a password which enables you to access certain parts of our site, you are responsible for keeping this password confidential. We ask you not to share a password with anyone.

Unfortunately, the transmission of information via the Internet is not completely secure. Although we will do our best to protect your personal information, we cannot guarantee the security of your data transmitted from our site and any transmission is at your own risk. Once we have received your personal information, we will use strict procedures and security features to try to prevent unauthorised access.

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Your Rights

You have the right to ask us not to process your personal information.

You can exercise your right at any time by contacting us. If you consented to us collecting and/or processing your personal information but you change your mind then you can get in touch with us about erasing the personal information we hold about you.

In some cases it may be necessary for us to collect personal information about you and if you do not accept our Privacy Policy then, unfortunately, we may be unable to provide you with that service or facility on our site.

Please be aware that, even if we receive a request from you to delete your personal information, it may be that we cannot entirely remove all of your personal information. This is usually because we have a legitimate interest to hold onto some of that personal information, for example, if you have an ongoing contract with us or there are outstanding payments due by you to us – but we’ll let you know.

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Access To Information

The legislation gives you the right to access a copy of the personal information that we hold about you.

In order to request a copy you need to submit a request to our Privacy Officer – details on how to get in touch can be found at the bottom of this page. However, we can’t just release your personal information to anyone. We can only release your personal information to you – it’s a legal requirement. Therefore, it is important for us to ensure that we confirm your identity before we can release any personal information.

If you send us a request to provide you with a copy of your personal information then we may ask you to provide some identification. We may ask you to provide a copy of your current and valid passport and/or driving licence plus a utility bill (that is no more than 3 months old) and has your current address. We may also ask you to visit one of our offices or obtain a solicitors or notary publics’ confirmation of your identification.

All of this might sound very onerous but please understand that we have an obligation to protect your personal information and we need to be certain that it is being released to the right person.

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What If I Do Not Consent Or Withdraw Consent?

If you do not consent to us collecting your personal information then we cannot guarantee the full functionality of our site and cannot be held responsible or liable to you for any reduction or restriction in access to our site or any of our other services.

Our site may, from time to time, contain links to and from the sites of our partner networks, advertisers and affiliates. If you follow a link to any of these sites, please note that these sites have their own privacy and cookie policies and that we do not accept any responsibility or liability for these policies. Please check these policies before you submit any personal information to these websites.

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How Long Will You Hold Onto My Personal Information?

Depending on how you engage with us or the types of services that we provide you it may be necessary for us to store your personal information for shorter or longer periods of time.

You can find details on how long we may hold onto your personal information on our Data Retention Policy which can be found here.

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Changes To Our Privacy Policy

We may need to change this Privacy Policy if it’s necessary for legal reasons or to reflect changes to our services. In any case, the provisions of this Privacy Policy may be changed without prejudice to your rights. When we change our Privacy Policy we will make the updated Privacy Policy available on our site and we will also update the “Last Updated” date.

Once we change our Privacy Policy, it will become legally binding on you 30 days after we post it on our site. During that period you’re welcome to contact us if you have questions about the changes.

If you don’t agree with our changes to the Privacy Policy (regardless of whether you get in touch with us) then, unfortunately, we may need to restrict or limit your use of the parts of our site that require your personal information in order for us to deliver our services to you. We’re sorry we have to say that, but we hope you’ll appreciate that in order for certain parts of our site to work properly and in order for us to identify you in connection with our services we need to have everyone using our site and our services under the same rules instead of different people having different rules – that’s why we encourage you to get in touch with us if you have queries.

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Contact Us

If you have any questions, comments or requests regarding our Privacy Policy then please do not hesitate to get in touch with us. To make things easier for both of us we would appreciate if your queries were addressed to our Privacy Officer at the above address.