Privacy Policy

Last updated 24th August 2023

1. Introduction
Wallace Veterinary Centres respect your right to privacy. This Privacy Policy explains in detail the types of personal information we may collect about you when you interact with us. It also explains how we will store and handle that personal information, how we keep it safe and how you can exercise your privacy rights

If you have any questions or concerns about our use of your personal information or for your right to access this, then please contact us using the contact form here, selecting the ‘Privacy concerns (GDPR) option. Alternatively, you can write to us at any of our practices listed below.

2. Who are Wallace Veterinary Centres?
Wallace Veterinary Centres are made up of two separate legal entities:

Wallace Vets Limited, registered at 285 Queen Street, Broughty Ferry, Dundee, DD5 2HT and trading from 71-73 Ravensby Park Gardens, Carnoustie, Angus, DD7 7NY and Wallace Vets of Broughty Ferry Limited, registered at 285 Queen Street, Broughty Ferry, Dundee, DD5 2HT and trading from 285 Queen Street, Broughty Ferry, Dundee, DD5 2HT and 5 Fisheracre, Arbroath, DD11 1LE.

3. When do we collect personal information?
We collect your personal information in a number of instances, including when you:

Register your details as a client at one of our practices or make appointments at one of our practices or are referred to one of our practices from another veterinary centre;
Complete a form asking to be contacted by one of our practices or regarding an appointment;
Sign up to our Premium Pet Care Plan;
Sign up to our Fixed Payment Plan;
Submit and Insurance claim;
Visit our Website;
Engage with us on social media;
Contact us by any means with questions about a service, product or treatment or to raise a concern;
Ask one of our colleagues to email you information about a service, product or treatment;
Enter prize draws or competitions;
Choose to complete any surveys we send you;
Use our micro-chipping service;
Fill in any forms. For example, if an accident happens in one of our practices, a colleague may collect your personal information;

4. What personal information do we collect and why?
The personal information that we collect about you broadly falls into the following categories:

Information that you provide voluntarily
When you register as a client, book an appointment, sign up to our Premium Pet Care Plan or Fixed Payment Plan, you will be asked for some essential information including your title, first name, surname, postal address, email address, telephone, details of your pet and, if applicable, payment information. These are collected to help us:

Provide veterinary care to your pet(s);
Register your details as a new client at one of our practice or via our website (or update your details if they change);
Manage and process your Premium Pet Care Plan;
Process payments due to us (including for treatments for your pet);
Contact you about your pet or account;
Prevent and detect fraud – to do this, we may need to disclose information to assist legal or debt recovery processes;
Understand your needs and listen to your feedback via polls and surveys;
Enhance your experience;
Send you reminders about appointments, vaccination dates and flea and worm treatment dates;
Send you marketing and promotional offers and to manage your marketing preferences if you elect not to receive marketing and promotional offers from us;
Where you a member of our Premium Pet Care Plan, to administer your membership and to contact you with any changes, offers and promotions;
Provide you with information about the fundraising activities of our affiliated charities;
Respond to any issues or queries;
Conduct analytics to understand how our services are used; and/or
Notify you about changes to our service.

Information that we collect automatically
When you visit our Website, we may collect certain information automatically from your device. In some countries, including countries in the European Economic Area, this information may be considered personal information under applicable data protection laws.

Specifically, the information we collect automatically may include information like your IP address, device type, operating system, unique device identification numbers, browser-type, broad geographic location (e.g. country or city-level location) and other technical information. We may also collect information about how your device has interacted with our Website, including the pages accessed and links clicked.

Collecting this information enables us to better understand the visitors who come to our Website, where they come from, what content on our Website is of interest to them, what they have viewed or looked at. We use this information for internal analytics purposes, to improve the quality and relevance of our Website to our visitors.

Some of this information may be collected using cookies, tracking pixels and similar tracking technology, as explained further under the heading “Cookies and similar tracking technology” below.

When you contact us by telephone or answer a call made to you from one of our practices, calls are recorded are stored digitally to ensure we are providing our clients with the best quality of service, to identify any training needs, to address any incidents inline with our Zero Tolerance policy and in the instance of any complaints against our clients or employees relating to telephone conversations.

Information that we obtain from third party sources
From time to time, we may receive personal information about you from third party sources, but only where we have checked that these third parties either have your consent or are otherwise legally permitted or required to disclose your personal information to us. For example we may receive personal information from other veterinary professionals if you are referred to one of our practices or if you transfer from another veterinary surgery and register with us as a client.

5. Who do we share your personal information with?
We may disclose your personal information to the following categories of recipients:

  • to specialist referral centres or specialist veterinary hospitals, when we refer your pet for specialist diagnosis or treatment;
  • to other veterinary professionals, if you request that we transfer your pet’s patient history on transferring to another veterinary surgery;
  • to insurance companies with whom you have insured your pet or are looking to set up insurance;
  • to PetsApp whose smartphone application we use for communicating with clients and accepting appointment bookings;
  • to Premier Vet Alliance or PetsApp with whom our Premium Pet Care Plan is administered through;
  • to Stripe with whom client payment plans are administered through;
  • to DivideBuy with whom client finance plans are administered through;
  • to laboratories and other suppliers who you have agreed we may provide your details to and who require them in order to provide services in relation to your pet;

Direct marketing companies or other third parties who help us manage electronic communications with you;
Google, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and similar platforms to show you services that might interest you while you’re browsing the internet; This is based on either your marketing consent or your acceptance of cookies, tracking pixels or similar tracking technology on our websites, as explained further under the heading “Cookies and similar tracking technology” below; and/or
Data insight and data analysis companies (to provide us with tools to analyse the data which we hold);
Promotional partners;
Customer review companies (so you can leave feedback and we can improve our service to you); and/or
Competition or prize-draw partners

to any competent law enforcement body, regulatory, government agency, court or other third party where we believe disclosure is necessary (i) as a matter of applicable law or regulation, (ii) to exercise, establish or defend our legal rights or apply our Terms and Conditions, or (iii) to protect your vital interests or those of any other person;

to TNC Group Services and Alex M Adamson LLP who act as a debt collection agent on our behalf;

to any other person with your consent to the disclosure.
Where we share your personal information with third party service providers and partners we apply a policy to ensure your personal information is safe and in order to protect your privacy. Our policy requires:

We provide only the information they need to perform their specific services.
They may only use your data for the exact purposes we specify in our contract with them.
We work closely with them to ensure that your privacy is respected and protected at all times.
If we stop using their services, any of your personal information held by them will either be deleted or rendered anonymous (subject to applicable law).

6. Legal basis for processing personal information
Our legal basis for collecting and using the personal information described above will depend on the personal information concerned and the specific context in which we collect it.

However, we will normally collect personal information from you only (i) where we need the personal information to perform a contract with you, (ii) where the processing is in our legitimate interests and not overridden by your data protection interests or fundamental rights and freedoms, or (iii) where we have your consent to do so. In some cases, we may also have a legal obligation to collect personal information from you or may otherwise need the personal information to protect your vital interests or those of another person.

If we ask you to provide personal information to comply with a legal requirement or to perform a contact with you, we will make this clear at the relevant time and advise you whether the provision of your personal information is mandatory or not (as well as of the possible consequences if you do not provide your personal information).

Similarly, if we collect and use your personal information in reliance on our legitimate interests (or those of any third party), we will make clear to you at the relevant time what those legitimate interests are.

If you have questions about or need further information concerning the legal basis on which we collect and use your personal information, please contact us.

7. Cookies and similar tracking technology
We use cookies and similar tracking technology (collectively, “Cookies”) to collect and use personal information about you. For further information about the types of Cookies we use, why, and how you can control Cookies, please see our Cookies Policy below.

8. How do we keep your personal information secure?
We use appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect the personal information that we collect and process about you. The measures we use are designed to provide a level of security appropriate to the risk of processing your personal information. Specific measures we use include:
Encrypting your personal information.
Keeping your information up-to-date and accurate. Please note that, to do this, we require you to tell us if any of your details such as your name or address change; and
Having in place strict security procedures for the storage and disclosure of your information to prevent unauthorised access.
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 to and/or through our Websites; any transmission is at your own risk. Once we have received your information, we will use strict procedures and security features to try to prevent unauthorised access.

9. International data transfers
Your personal information may be transferred to, and processed in, countries other than the country in which you are resident. These countries may have data protection laws that are different to the laws of the UK.

Our Website server is located in the UK, but some of our third party service providers, partners and data back-up providers may operate outside of the UK. This means that when we collect your personal information it may be processed in another country.

Any transfer of your personal information will follow applicable laws and we will treat the information under the guiding principles of this Privacy Policy.

10. Data retention
We retain personal information we collect from you where we have an ongoing legitimate business need to do so (for example, to provide you with a service you have requested or to comply with applicable legal, tax or accounting requirements).

When we have no ongoing legitimate business need to process your personal information, we will either delete or anonymise it or, if this is not possible (for example, because your personal information has been stored in backup archives), then we will securely store your personal information and isolate it from any further processing until deletion is possible.

Client and pet registration and pet clinical records are kept for an indefinite length of time, unless a written request has been made to dispose of these.
Phone call recordings are kept for 30 days. This information is then disposed of automatically after this time.
CCTV footage is kept for a maximum of 14 days. This information is then disposed of automatically after this time.

11. Your data protection rights
You have the following data protection rights:

If you wish to access, correct, update or request deletion of your personal information, you can do so at any time by contacting us.
In addition, you can object to processing of your personal information, ask us to restrict processing of your personal information or request portability of your personal information. You can exercise these rights by contacting one of our practices.
You have the right to opt-out of marketing communications we send you at any time. You can exercise this right by clicking on the “unsubscribe” or “opt-out” link in the marketing e-mails we send you. To opt-out of other forms of marketing (such as postal marketing or telemarketing), then please contact us using the contact details provided under the “How to contact us” heading below.
Similarly, if we have collected and process your personal information with your consent, then you can withdraw your consent at any time. Withdrawing your consent will not affect the lawfulness of any processing we conducted prior to your withdrawal, nor will it affect processing of your personal information conducted in reliance on lawful processing grounds other than consent.
You have the right to complain to a data protection authority about our collection and use of your personal information.
We respond to all requests we receive from individuals wishing to exercise their data protection rights in accordance with applicable data protection laws.

12. Contacting the regulator
If you feel that your personal information has not been handled correctly, or you are unhappy with our response to any requests you have made to us regarding the use of your personal information, you have the right to raise a complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office. You can contact them by calling 0303 123 1113 or go online to www.ico.org.uk/concerns(please note we cannot be responsible for the content of external websites).

13. Updates to this Privacy Policy
We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time in response to changing legal, technical or business developments. When we update our Privacy Policy, we will take appropriate measures to inform you, consistent with the significance of the changes we make.

You can see when this Privacy Policy was last updated by checking the “last updated” date displayed at the top of this Privacy Policy.

14. How to contact us
If you have any questions or concerns about our use of your personal information, please contact our Data Protection Officer using the form on our ‘contact us‘ page and selecting ‘Privacy Protection (GDPR)’.

The data controller of your personal information will be the Wallace Vets Limited.

15. How to unsubscribe from reminders and marketing communication
If you have previously subscribed to reminders and marketing communication and now want to remove any details, you can do by calling either of our practices or by completing the form below, ticking which form of communication you would like to remove.

GDPR remove details

Cookies Policy

1. Introduction
1.1 Our website uses cookies.
1.2 By using our website and agreeing to this policy, you consent to our use of cookies in accordance with the terms of this policy.

2. About Cookies
2.1 A cookie is a file containing an identifier (a string of letters and numbers) that is sent by a web server to a web browser and is stored by the browser. The identifier is then sent back to the server each time the browser requests a page from the server.
2.2 Cookies may be either “persistent” cookies or “session” cookies: a persistent cookie will be stored by a web browser and will remain valid until its set expiry date, unless deleted by the user before the expiry date; a session cookie, on the other hand, will expire at the end of the user session, when the web browser is closed.
2.3 Cookies do not typically contain any information that personally identifies a user, but personal information that we store about you may be linked to the information stored in and obtained from cookies.
2.4 Cookies can be used by web servers to identify and track users as they navigate different pages on a website and identify users returning to a website.

3. Our Cookies
3.1 We use only session cookies on our website.
3.2 The names of the cookies that we use on our website, and the purposes for which they are used, are set out below:
(a) we use cookies to track users as they navigate the website and improve the website’s usability.

4. Analytics Cookies
4.1 We use Google Analytics to analyse the use of our website.
4.2 Our analytics service provider generates statistical and other information about website use by means of cookies.
4.3 The information generated relating to our website is used to create reports about the use of our website.
4.4 Our analytics service provider’s privacy policy is available at: https://www.google.com/policies/privacy.

5. Blocking Cookies
5.1 Most browsers allow you to refuse to accept cookies; for example:
(a) in Internet Explorer (version 11) you can block cookies using the cookie handling override settings available by clicking “Tools”, “Internet Options”, “Privacy” and then “Advanced”;
(b) in Firefox (version 47) you can block all cookies by clicking “Tools”, “Options”, “Privacy”, selecting “Use custom settings for history” from the drop-down menu, and unticking “Accept cookies from sites”; and
(c) in Chrome (version 52), you can block all cookies by accessing the “Customise and control” menu, and clicking “Settings”, “Show advanced settings” and “Content settings”, and then selecting “Block sites from setting any data” under the “Cookies” heading.
5.2 Blocking all cookies will have a negative impact upon the usability of many websites.
5.3 If you block cookies, you will not be able to use all the features on our website.

6. Deleting Cookies
6.1 You can delete cookies already stored on your computer; for example:
(a) in Internet Explorer (version 11), you must manually delete cookie files (you can find instructions for doing so at https://windows.microsoft.com/en-gb/internet-explorer/delete-manage-cookies#ie=ie-11);
(b) in Firefox (version 47), you can delete cookies by clicking “Tools”, “Options” and “Privacy”, then selecting “Use custom settings for history” from the drop-down menu, clicking “Show Cookies”, and then clicking “Remove All Cookies”; and
(c) in Chrome (version 52), you can delete all cookies by accessing the “Customise and control” menu, and clicking “Settings”, “Show advanced settings” and “Clear browsing data”, and then selecting “Cookies and other site and plug-in data” before clicking “Clear browsing data”.
6.2 Deleting cookies will have a negative impact on the usability of many websites.

7. Cookie Preferences
7.1 You can manage your preferences relating to the use of cookies on our website by visiting: [URL]

8. Our Details
8.1 This website is owned and operated by Wallace Vets Limited.
8.2 We are registered in Scotland under registration number SC437224, and our registered office is at 285 Queen Street, Broughty Ferry, Dundee, DD5 2HT.
8.3 Our principal place of business is at 285 Queen Street, Broughty Ferry, Dundee, DD5 2HT.

Call Recordings

All calls to and from our practices are recored onto a secure encrypted platform for the following reasons:

  1. To ensure we are providing our clients with the best quality of service
  2. To identify any training needs
  3. To address any incidents inline with our Zero Tolerance policy
  4. In the instance of any complaints against our clients or employees relating to telephone conversations

By phoning our practices, or by allowing us to call you, you are giving us permission to record the conversations for the above reasons.
Recordings are not shared with any third party companies.

Emails sent in error

Information in emails sent from at @wallacevets.com account, including any attachments may be privileged, confidential and is intended exclusively for the addressee. The views expressed may not be official policy, but the personal views of the originator. If you receive and email in error, please notify the sender by return e-mail and delete it from your system. You should not reproduce, distribute, store, retransmit, use or disclose its contents to anyone.