Privacy Policy
Effective Date: January 31, 2024
The VetTalk Platform, Website, Dashboard, and all other related services are products of VetTalk Software, Inc., an Illinois Corporation DBA VetTalk (“VetTalk,” “we,” or “us”). We take your privacy very seriously. How we will handle information we learn about you depends upon what you do when using one of our services or websites (“Services”). Our platform connects pet industry service providers like veterinarians, groomers, etc (“Users”) on our platform with their pet owner clients. We strive to make all the choices you make while using our service as transparent as possible. We also hold the security of your personal information and business information as our top priority. This policy will cover personally identifiable information (“Personal Information”) and other information that may or may not be anonymous that you provide us through the use of our services or websites. All other information given to us is outside the scope of this policy. This policy will explain what information is collected, how that information is used and/or shared, how the information is protected, and how you can control your privacy while using the service. We expect Users and Providers to use VetTalk for management of a pet’s life but public posts can be misused by other parties. We will not be held accountable for these instances so please be prudent in all public postings. We reserve the right to make changes to this policy at any time and will update these terms on our website and post an updated Effective Date when we do so.
Information Provided by You & Information VetTalk Collects
In administering the Services, VetTalk may collect from you, Personal Information and non-Personal Information. Personal Information is information that identifies, describes or can be linked to you as the User or Provider (“Personal Information”). Some examples of this type of information includes your name, business name, address, phone number, email address, date of birth, and driver license number. Non-Personal Information, on the other hand, is information that is considered insufficient to be able to be linked back to the original User or Provider.
Personal and Business Information Provided to VetTalk by Providers
If you are a Provider, or are using VetTalk on behalf of a Provider, you may provide Personal Information including, but not limited to your name, business name, email address, social media accounts, username, website, address, and phone number when you register on and use the Service. You may also provide a client list by importing directly with us or through routine syncs setup through our integration. VetTalk takes your privacy seriously. This list may include names, emails, cell phone numbers, pets, and other veterinary information to better serve and distribute the app to your customers. By doing so you verify that you have permission to share this information with third-party vendors with the purpose of sending email and SMS correspondence. You also affirm that you obtained client consent to send these messages without a condition of purchase. Your client list data will be stored separately from our User accounts and will not be used for any other purpose other than executing VetTalk’s features for you and your clients. The client list will not be shared with anyone without your prior consent. The name and email address of the Provider account holder will not be shared outside of the service or with other users unless you explicitly do this yourself. Your name and email are only used for the identification of the account holder. The information we collect is kept for the time necessary to carry out the service or purpose described in this policy. You may withdraw your permission and prevent our use of your information by contacting us directly at info@vettalksoftware.com.
Personal Information Provided to VetTalk by Users
If you are a User, you may provide Personal Information including, but not limited to, your name, email address, social media accounts, username, and current location when you register on and use the Service. You may also provide photos, notes, events, location data (when you want to search for nearby providers), and similar information during regular use of the Service.
When you search for nearby providers through the VetTalk user mobile application, you will provide your location data by turning on your GPS and sending your location to VetTalk. This location will not be made public, will not be shared with anyone, or in any way be connected to your Personal Information.
Personally Identifiable data that you input about your pet(s) will be linked directly to your account and will be shared with your existing service providers. This information will not be shared with any individuals or new businesses unless you explicitly share it through social media or other other sharing features within the product.
Information Automatically Collected by VetTalk
Like other websites or apps, we also may collect and store information that is generated automatically as you navigate through our Services. We may collect information about your visit from the browser on your computer or mobile device including but not limited to the time and date you access the Services, your geographic location, IP address, device information, cookies and the pages you request — to analyze trends, administer the Services, track navigation of the site, deliver relevant advertisements and gather broad demographic information for aggregate use (note that IP addresses are not linked to “personally identifiable information”). We use this information to improve understanding of customer needs and provide relevant services. To automatically collect information, we use various technologies including:
Cookies. Cookies are small data files that a website you visit may save on your hard drive that usually includes an anonymous unique identifier. The cookie does not personally identify the user; it merely identifies the computer with which the user accesses the Services. Unless a user voluntarily identifies himself or herself (through registration, for example), the Services will not be able to ascertain the identity of the user, even if a cookie is assigned to a user’s computer. The only personal information a cookie can contain is the information supplied by a user. A cookie cannot retrieve any other data from your hard drive, pass on computer viruses, or capture your email address. The Services use cookies for user authentication, keeping track of your preferences, promotional campaigns that require user identification, keeping track of our audience size and traffic patterns, and in certain other cases. You can configure your browser to accept cookies, reject cookies or notify you when a cookie is being used; however, if you do so it may render your computer unable to take advantage of the personalized features enjoyed by other users of the Services. Cookies allow us to provide better security on the Services, to customize the content, to track purchases, and to keep the Services working properly.
Telemedicine. During the course of a telemedicine session, we may also collect and store information including usernames, passwords, logs, data, text transcripts, photographs, images and videos. Your video, email, two-way messaging, phone or text consultations between you and your veterinary clinic are recorded and archived. We may use these consultations for marketing, analytics, or publicity purposes to assist promoting VetTalk telemedicine services.
Analytics. We use various analytics services to better understand how visitors interact with our Services. These analytics services provide non-personally identifiable data including but not limited to data on where visitors came from, what actions they took on our site and where visitors went when they left our site. These third parties may collect information about a consumer’s online activities over time and across different websites when he or she uses our website.
We do not use technology that recognizes a “do-not-track” signal from your web browser.
How We Use Provider and User Data
We will use the information you provide to us for a variety of purposes, including to:
create your VetTalk account, provide communication between Providers and Users to request and/or confirm appointments, facilitate direct messaging between Providers and Users keep Providers’ business emails, addresses, names, and phone numbers updated and publicly displayed through the VetTalk platform, share User profiles with their Providers and vice versa, contact you for customer service requests, contact you to inform you of important changes or additions to our Services, send you administrative notices, offers and any other communications that we believe may be of interest to you, operate, improve and maintain our products and services, including analyzing user behavior, administer promotions, provide features and display relevant content to you, track and monitor web traffic, track your response and behavior on the Services, interact with support and feedback platforms, manage support and contact requests, tailor and optimize advertising, detect and prevent fraud, business research and development of new products and services, verify the identity of users, respond to and manage complaints or disputes, comply with our legal obligations and enforce our rights, protect the rights, safety, and property of VetTalk and others, and to implement SPAM and other technical protections.
Personal Information obtained from Provider client lists will never be shared, sold, or transferred outside of this Service without your consent and will be deleted upon request in the event of a business transaction including, but not limited to, acquisition, merger, or dissolution. Note that we are not able to remove your data from your individual veterinary provider. Please contact your individual vet clinic to get your data removed from your veterinary provider’s Practice Management System or other related software. If you would like to have your information deleted, please visit us here.
How We May Share Provider and User Information
We don’t give your Personal Information to any third-party services, except when it’s necessary to provide services (like when we partner with payment processors or other data services). When we share data with third-party services that support our delivery of the Services, we require that they protect your Personal Information to the same standards we do. We reserve the right to disclose Personal Information when we believe that doing so is reasonably necessary to comply with the law or law enforcement, to prevent fraud or abuse, or to protect our legal rights.
Please see below for how we may share your Personal and non-Personal Information.
Sharing of Personal Information
When you send information to the Services, you are granting us permission to use and take other actions regarding such information, to provide the Services. We do not share, sell, rent or otherwise distribute this information to others, except as disclosed in this Privacy Policy. We may share your information with third parties outside of VetTalk under the following circumstances:
-
With Your Consent: We may share information when you provide us with your consent to do so. This may occur when you consent affirmatively or it may occur through your use of the Services as provided in this Policy. This also includes when you elect for VetTalk to contact a pet care clinic that uses VetTalk or other service providers who use VetTalk, or when you choose for us to share your account info with such parties.
-
Service Providers and Contractors: We reserve the right to disclose to service providers, contractors, or other third parties any or all of the information that we collect online about you and other visitors to conduct business on our behalf. These activities could include processing payments, maintaining the Site, or facilitating email delivery to you. We require that our Service Providers protect your Personal Information with the same standards we do but we are not responsible for their policies or practices.
-
By Law or to Protect Rights: We may disclose information when we believe that disclosure is necessary to comply with the law, to enforce our intellectual property rights, to enforce our Terms of Service, or to protect the rights, property or safety of VetTalk and our employees, and if necessary to defend against third-party claims. We may also disclose information when requested to comply with a court order, investigation, or governmental request.
-
Business Transfers: If we go through a business transfer, such as consolidation, merger, restructuring, acquisition, or sale of part or all of our assets, you acknowledge and consent to the transfer of your information. You further acknowledge and consent to the continued use of your information by the recipient so long as they comply with this Privacy Policy.
Please bear in mind that whenever you voluntarily make your Personal Information available for viewing by third parties online – for example through comments and participation in forums or through email – that information can be seen, collected and used by others besides us. We cannot be responsible for any unauthorized third-party use of such information.
Sharing of Non-Personal Information and Aggregate Data
VetTalk may share with third parties your non-Personal Information and related aggregated data. Because this form of data does not identify particular users, these third parties will not be able to contact you based solely on this data. For example, we may share aggregated usage data from our Users or may share general demographic information of our users to provide anonymous aggregated data to business partners about the volume of use on the Services and the opportunities in which Users are most interested.
How We Protect All of Our Data
All information submitted to VetTalk will be stored on our servers. We will use reasonable technical, administrative and physical measures, including encryption where appropriate, to protect information from unauthorized access, misuse, loss or alteration. However, as effective as the reasonable security measures we implement may be, no security system is impenetrable. We cannot guarantee the security of our database, nor can we guarantee that information supplied will not be intercepted while being transmitted over the Internet. Therefore, any information you transmit to us is sent at your own risk.
By using the Services or providing Personal Information to us, you agree that we may communicate with you electronically regarding security, privacy, and administrative issues relating to your use of the Services.
How You Can Control the Information We Collect, Use and Share
If you share information with us, you will have the opportunity to review, update, change or delete the information you have provided to us (and that we continue to store) at any time through your profile settings. You can also stop receiving emails from us or disable your account to prevent any future purchases through that account. Please contact us directly at info@vettalksoftware.com to effect changes or click on the “unsubscribe” link located at the bottom of the marketing emails you may receive from us.
Regardless of your choices regarding promotional communications and updates regarding content, we may send you administrative messages, service announcements, terms and conditions of your account, or other similar communications, without offering you the opportunity to opt-out of receiving them.
Links
The Services may contain links to other sites or services. We are not responsible for the privacy policies or other practices employed by websites linked to, or from, our website nor the information or content contained therein. This privacy statement applies solely to information collected by our Services.
Consent to Receive Calls, Texts, & Other Forms of Electronic Communication.
The communications between you and Company use electronic means, whether you use the Company Properties or send us emails or text messages, or whether Company posts notices on the Company Properties or communicates with you via email, text messages or other electronic means. By agreeing to these Terms, you provide your express written consent for the Company and its representatives to contact you at any time using any telephone number or email address you provide or associate with pre-order or account via text messages, phone calls, or e-mails for any matters relating to your account or your use of the Company Properties. You further agree that the Company may use automatic telephone dialing systems and/or prerecorded or artificial voice message for purposes of such communications. For contractual purposes, you (a) consent to receive communications from Company in an electronic form; and (b) agree that all terms and conditions, agreements, notices, disclosures, and other communications that Company provides to you electronically satisfy any legal requirement that such communications would satisfy if set forth in a hardcopy writing. The foregoing does not affect your non-waivable rights.
Our Policy Toward Children
The Services are not directed to children under the age of 13. We will not knowingly maintain personally identifiable information from or about anyone under 13. If we become aware that we have collected personally identifiable information from a user of the Services that is under the age of 13, then we will remove that child’s Personal Information from our files. If a parent or guardian learns his or her child has provided us with Personal Information, he or she should contact us at info@vettalksoftware.com (please include the child’s name, address, username, and email address).
The Following Terms of this Privacy Policy Apply if You Are a California Resident
As of January 1, 2020 verified California residents will have the right to request disclosure of our personal information collection practices, a copy of the information we have collected about them during the prior 12 months, disclosure of our information sale practices, that we do not sell personal information about them and that we delete their personal information subject to certain exceptions. In order to make a request for disclosure, you may contact us by emailing us at info@vettalksoftware.com, visiting this webpage here either via your desktop. We will ask you for information to verify your identity and will use that information only for that purpose. This includes matching information you provide against information in our records. We may request that you submit a signed statement under penalty of perjury that you are the individual you claim to be. We will not discriminate against you as a result of your exercise of any of these rights. If you would like to opt-out of having your personal information sold, please visit our opt-out page here.
The following chart shows the categories of personal information that we have collected during the past 12 months, the sources of the information, our purposes/uses of the information and whether we have disclosed the information for a business purpose. The information described below includes information collected from our site visitors, Users, Providers, and any other person that interacts with us either online or offline. Not all types of information are collected about all people interacting with us. For instance, we may collect different information from Providers than we do from Users. We do not provide your data to third parties in exchange for monetary consideration but we do disclose data to third parties in exchange for analytics and security information. We do not sell personal information of individuals we actually know are less than 16 years of age.
Categories of Personal Information Collected
Sources of Information
Purposes Information is Used
Disclosed for Business Purposes?
Identifiers (name address, postal/email address, phone number, IP address, online ID, Unique ID (mobile device ID, customer number, cookie, etc.))
Individuals submitting information Information automatically collected from site visitors and app users
Information we may receive from third parties
Internal business operations and analytics, to provide, change or optimize our services and products including allowing Users and Providers to communicate with each other; to communicate and market to you; to fulfill your requests for information; to audit our interactions with you and vendor oversight.
Yes (analytics, marketing, fulfillment, security/fraud protection)
Sensitive Information(Username and Password)
Individuals submitting information
Providing access to account, authentication of user, security
No
Commercial information (for example, products or services purchased or considered, consuming history)
Individuals submitting information information automatically collected from site visitors and app users
Information we may receive from third-party marketing and data partners
Internal business operations and analytics, to provide, change or optimize our services and products and to communicate and market to you; to fulfill your requests for information; to audit our interactions with you and in connection with vendor oversight.
Yes (analytics, marketing, fulfillment, payment processing, security/fraud protection)
Internet/electronic activity (for example, interaction with website, application or ad, browsing history)
Information automatically collected from site visitors and app users
Internal business operations and analytics, to provide, change or optimize our services and products; to audit our interactions with you.
Yes (analytics, marketing, fulfillment, payment processing, security/fraud protection)
Geolocation data
Information automatically collected from site visitors and app users with your consent
Internal business operations and analytics, to provide, change or optimize our services and products; to audit our interactions with you.
No
Audio, video data (for example, customer service calls)
Information automatically collected during customer service calls
Internal business operations and analytics, to provide, change or optimize our services and product and to communicate and market to you; to fulfill your requests for information; to audit our interactions with you.
Yes (analytics, marketing, fulfillment, payment processing, security/fraud protection)
Inferences from above to create a profile
Internal analytics
Internal business operations and analytics, to provide, change or optimize our services and products.
Yes (analytics, marketing, fulfillment, payment processing, security/fraud protection)
Using an Authorized Agent. You may submit a request through someone holding a formal Power of Attorney. Otherwise, you may submit a request using an authorized agent only if (1) you provide the authorized agent with written permission to make a request and (2) you verify your own identity directly with us. We will require the agent to submit proof to us that they have been authorized to make requests on your behalf.
Consent to Transfer
Our computer systems for the Services are currently governed by and operated in the United States, so your personal data will be processed by us in the United States, where data protection and privacy regulations may not offer the same level of protection as in other parts of the world, such as the European Union. VetTalk makes no representation that the Services is governed by or operated in accordance with the laws of any other nation. If you are a visitor from outside the United States, by using the Services, you agree to this Policy and you consent to the transfer of all such information to the United States, which may not offer an equivalent level of protection of that required in the European Union or other countries, and to the processing of that information as described in this Policy.
VetTalk reserves the right to store this information in and outside of the United States and in locations not under our direct control (for example, colocated server facilities).
Changes and Updates
From time to time, we may change this Privacy Policy. To ensure that you are familiar with our most updated policies and practices, you should check the effective date indicated at the end of this Privacy Policy each time you use the Services. If we make any significant changes, we will notify you of such changes by posting the updated Privacy Policy on the Services. We may also send you an email alerting you of such changes. You will be bound by any such changes to the policy when you use the Services after those changes have been posted. If we make material revisions concern practices where we have represented we will obtain your consent to use or disclose your Personal Information, we will obtain your consent before taking any action inconsistent with those representations.
Contact Us
We welcome your feedback regarding this Privacy Policy. If you have questions, comments, or concerns about either one, please contact us by email at info@vettalksoftware.com.