Nixon Equine Vet Consultancy – Privacy Policy
Privacy Notice
This notice explains how Nixon Equine Vet Consultancy (NEVC) uses and protects the personal information that it holds about patients and clients. Contact details for NEVC are set out at the end of this notice.
NEVC is a “controller” for the purposes of the data protection laws. The current data protection laws are set out in the Data Protection Act 1998. These will be replaced by new data protection laws with effect from 25 May 2018. We refer to both the current and the new data protection laws as the “Data Protection Laws” in this privacy notice.
What is personal information?
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 horse(s).
What types of personal information might we hold about you?
We collect and process the information about you that you provide by filling in forms and by corresponding with us by telephone, email or otherwise. We may hold and process any or all of the following personal information about you:
• personal details such as your name, title, contact details (e.g. your address and postcode, email, telephone and mobile numbers),
• details about your horse(s) including name, gender, breed, colour, height, age, and clinical history.
• details about any insurance coverage you have for your horse(s),
• No financial details are held by us.
Why do we hold this information?
We hold this information because we need it to be able to provide veterinary services to your horse(s).
Using your information in accordance with Data Protection Laws
Data Protection Laws require us to meet certain conditions before we are allowed to use your personal information in the way described in this privacy notice.
We rely on a condition known as ‘legitimate interests’ in order to use this information in the way described in this privacy notice. We have legitimate interests in collecting and processing your personal information as we need this to be able to provide veterinary services to your horse(s). 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 categories’ of personal information under the Data Protection Laws (e.g. information about your health) where you have explicitly consented to this or where there is an alternative legal basis for processing this information under the Data Protection Laws. This may mean that you will be asked to sign consent forms in the future. If you don’t consent to our processing this information when asked to do so, it may mean that we are unable to provide veterinary services to your horse(s). Once you have given your consent, you can withdraw it at any time by writing to us using the contact details below.
What do we do with the information?
We may use your personal information for a number of purposes relating to the provision of veterinary services to your horse(s), including the following:
• to provide you with the information, benefits and services that you request from us;
• to notify you about services provided to NEVC’s clients and any changes to those services or to enable you to access those services;
• for statistical, financial modelling, funding, accounting and reference purposes;
• for internal record keeping;
• for risk management purposes, including the insurance or management of risks;
• complying with our legal obligations, any relevant industry or professional rules and regulations or any applicable voluntary codes;
• complying with demands or requests made by any relevant regulators, government departments and law enforcement or tax authorities or in connection with any disputes or litigation;
• or in connection with any sale, merger, acquisition, disposal, reorganisation or similar change of NEVC’s business.
How long do we keep your information for?
We will hold your personal information on our systems for as long as you remain a client of NEVC.
If you cease to be a client of NEVC (e.g. because you move out of the area), we will inactivate your account and remove it from being routinely accessed but will keep your account details in case any further queries arise about the services you received whilst you were a client of NEVC.
Who do we share the information with?
Where appropriate for the purposes of providing veterinary services to your horse(s), we may share your information with:
• NEVC’s professional advisers (including debt collectors) and auditors;
• NEVC’s insurers, banks and other service providers;
• any referral centres once you have consented to a referral process for your horse;
• any laboratory services should samples be sent for analysis;
• any bereavement services;
• regulators, government departments, law enforcement authorities, tax authorities and insurance companies;
• any relevant ombudsman, dispute resolution body or the courts; and
• persons in connection with any sale, merger, acquisition, disposal, reorganisation or similar change in NEVC’s business.
The entities listed above may also share personal data with their own business suppliers, for example in relation to the operation of IT systems or where they outsource part of their services.
Where we store your personal data
The data that we collect from you will usually be stored inside the UK or the European Economic Area (EEA).
Your rights in relation to your personal information
The accuracy of the information that we hold about you is important to us. If any of the information that we hold is inaccurate or out of date, please let us know using the contact details set out at the end of this notice.
You have a number of rights under the Data Protection Laws in relation to the way we process your personal data, namely:
• to access your data;
• to have your data rectified if it is inaccurate or incomplete;
• in certain circumstances, to have your data deleted or removed;
• in certain circumstances, to restrict the processing of your data; and
• to claim compensation for damages caused by a breach of the Data Protection Laws.
If you wish to exercise any of these rights, please let us know using the contact details set out at the end of this notice.
We will aim to respond to any request received from you within one month from your request. Access to your data will usually be provided free of charge, although in certain circumstances we may make a small charge where entitled to do so under the Data Protection Laws.
Please note that we may be unable to delete or remove your data whilst we still need this to provide veterinary services to your horse(s) – see the section ‘How long do we keep information for?’ above.
IP Addresses and Cookies
We may collect information about your computer, including where available your IP address, operating system and browser type, for system administration and to track abuse of our systems.
For the same reason, we may obtain information whilst you use our website by using a cookie file which is stored on the hard drive of your device you use when browsing our website. They help us to improve our site and to deliver a better and more personalised service. They enable us to:
• Store information about your preferences and allow us to customise our site according to your individual interests
• Recognise you when you return to our site and to allow functions such as “Stay Logged in” when logging in
• Generally, provide a better service
Any complaints?
If you are not happy with the way in which your personal information is held or processed, please contact us using the details below. You also have the right to complain about data protection matters to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).
The ICO is the UK’s independent body set up to uphold information rights. You can find out more about the ICO on its website (https://ico.org.uk/). The ICO can be contacted by calling 0303 123 1113.
Changes to this privacy notice
This privacy notice is current as at 25th May 2018.
We keep our privacy notice under regular review and may change it at any time. We will tell you about any significant changes.
Contact us
If you have any queries about this privacy notice, or wish to exercise any of the rights above, please contact: JANE NIXON, NIXON EQUINE VET CONSULTANCY, OVERTON FIELDS, TOWCESTER RD, MAIDS MORETON, BUCKINGHAM, MK18 1RE.