Privacy Policy

Vets of Geelong
Privacy Policy

Last updated 1 April 2025

Welcome to Vets of Geelong. Vets of Geelong Group is a group of clinics that operate throughout the Greater Geelong area. The Vets of Geelong Group, as at the date of this Privacy Policy, include Larry and Gary Pty Ltd, Tiernan Veterinary Holdings Pty Ltd, Ralph and Paddy Pty Ltd, and Maple & Zuma Pty Ltd. As a group we are committed to protecting your privacy and ensuring that your personal information is handled securely and responsibly.

This Privacy Policy outlines how we collect, use, disclose, and protect your personal information in accordance with the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs). We strongly encourage you to read this notice so that you understand and are comfortable with consenting to how we handle your personal information.

1. What is your Personal Information?

‘Personal information’ essentially means any information that can be used to personally identify you. This may include your name, address, telephone number, email address and profession or occupation.

If the information Vets of Geelong Group collect personally identifies you, or you are reasonably identifiable from it, the information will be considered personal information and protected in accordance with this Privacy Policy.

2. Collection

2.1 What kinds of information does Vets of Geelong Group collect about you?

Vets of Geelong Group may collect the following types of personal information:

(a) name and mailing or street address;

(b) email address and telephone number/s;

(c) age or birth date;

(d) your pet’s name, breed, age, and medical history;

(e) payment and billing details;

(f) digital information such as IP address and online interactions (please see section 9 below for more information);

(g) any other information provided when booking appointments, completing forms, or contacting us.

We may also collect relevant information from referring veterinary clinics if your pet is referred to us for specialist care.

2.2 How does Vets of Geelong Group collection this information?

(a) Vets of Geelong Group collect your personal information directly from you in most cases, where reasonable and practicable. When collecting personal information from you, we may collect in ways including:

(i) through your access and use of our website;

(ii) during conversations between you and our staff when you visit our premises or via telephone or email;

(iii) through camera surveillance (e.g. CCTV) at our premises for the safety of our staff and customers; or

(iv) when you complete a new client form.

(b) Vets of Geelong Group also use voice recordings in consultation rooms strictly to assist with generating clinical notes and improve service quality. Please let our staff know if you wish to decline to have your consultation recorded.

(c) We will never request personal, financial, or medical details via public social media comments on any Vets of Geelong Group social media platform (including but not limited to Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn). If you have any confidential inquiries, please contact us on the details in Section 11 below.

(d) Third parties; In some cases, you may provide Vets of Geelong Group with personal information which relates to another person (for example, an emergency contact, a job referee, or a joint pet owner). If you do so, you agree that you have received permission from these individuals for us to collect, use, and share, their personal information in accordance with this Privacy Policy.

3. Use

3.1 For what purpose does Vets of Geelong Group collect, use and disclose your personal information?

Vets of Geelong Group collect your personal information to help us provide exceptional veterinary services, including:

(a) managing appointments and consultations;

(b) processing payments and invoices;

(c) communicating with you about your pet’s health, appointment reminders, and treatment plans;

(d) managing and improving our operations and business, including training staff, investigating incidents, handling any complaints, and conducting safety, quality assurance and improvement activities;

(e) sending updates, newsletters, or promotional offers (if you have opted in); and

(f) meeting legal and regulatory requirements.

4. Disclosure

Your personal information will not be shared or disclosed other than as described in this Privacy Policy.

4.1 We may disclose your personal information for the reasons for which we collect, store and use that information to:

(a) third-party service providers assisting in delivering our services (e.g., payment processors, laboratory services, referral specialists);

(b) insurance companies as part of facilitating insurance claims and related processes

(c) third parties, whether affiliated or unaffiliated, for the purpose of facilitating or implementing a transfer or sale of all or part of our assets or business or if we undergo any other kind of corporate restructure, acquisition or sale;

(d) referring veterinary clinics for continued care or specialist consultations;

(e) when required by law, such as responding to legal requests or regulatory obligations; and

(f) in emergency situations to ensure the best possible care for your pet.

While we do not take images of clients for social media, should such a scenario arise, we will always obtain explicit permission, either verbally or in writing, before publication.

4.2 Sharing information overseas

We may disclose your personal information overseas recipients for processing, data storage or back-up purposes which may include the processing of diagnostic images, pathology or laboratory results, management of adverse medical event data, cloud-based medical record storage, telemedicine consultations, and other veterinary support purposes

In certain circumstances, we may disclose personal information to overseas service providers to assist in providing our services, including cloud-based practice management systems, telemedicine platforms, AI-based radiology support, and pathology laboratories These providers may be located in countries such as the United States and the United Kingdom. We ensure that any overseas recipients are trusted entities and have agreed to comply with our standards for data protection and privacy. These recipients are carefully selected based on their ability to provide adequate safeguards for your personal information. By using our services, you consent to the transfer of your personal information to these overseas service providers, subject to the conditions outlined in this Privacy Policy

5. Direct marketing materials

(a) Vets of Geelong Group will only send you direct marketing communications and information about our products and services that we consider may be of interest to you. All clients receive our email communications as part of our service offering but you have the ability to opt out or unsubscribe at any time.

(b) These communications may be sent in various forms, including email, SMS, fax and by post, in accordance with applicable marketing laws, such as the Spam Act 2003 (Cth). If you indicate a preference for a method of communication, we will endeavour to use that method whenever practical to do so.

(c) You may change your mind and opt-out of receiving marketing communications at any time by contacting us (see the Contact us section below), or by using opt-out facilities provided in the marketing communications, and we will then ensure that your name is removed from our mailing list.

6. Access and Correction

(a) You may request access of any of your personal information that you are entitled to that is held by Vets of Geelong Group by contacting us (see the Contact us section below). You will be required to verify your identity, and we reserve the right to withhold information if we are not satisfied you are the person identified in it.

(b) Once verification is complete, we will make reasonable efforts to provide you with a suitable means of accessing it (for example, by mailing or emailing it to you).

(c) We may charge you a fee to cover our administrative and other reasonable costs in providing the information to you and, if so, will notify you of the applicable charges. We will not charge for you making the request and will not charge for making any corrections to your personal information.

(d) There may be instances where we cannot grant you access to the personal information we hold. For example, we may need to refuse access if granting access would interfere with the privacy of others or if it would result in a breach of confidentiality. If that happens, we will give you written reasons for any refusal.

(e) If you believe that personal information we hold about you is incorrect, incomplete or inaccurate, then you may request us to amend it. We will consider if the information requires amendment. If we do not agree that there are grounds for amendment then we will add a note to the personal information stating that you disagree with it.

7. Complaints

(a) If you believe that your privacy has been breached, please contact Vets of Geelong Group using the contact information below and provide details of the incident so that we can investigate it.

Contact our:

Business Services Director

Vets of Geelong

18 Barrabool Rd, Highton VIC 3216

Phone: 03-52430077

Email: jess.case@vetsofgeelong.com.au

(b) Our procedure for investigating and dealing with privacy breaches is an internal review, where we may contact you to seek further information to your initial complaint, if needed. At the conclusion of that review, you will be provided with a written account of the outcome and any measures we propose to take to address defects in our processes.

(c) At any time, if you wish to have the matter considered externally, you may complain to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner via the details below.

Contact the Australian Information Commissioner

Post: GPO Box 5218 Sydney NSW 2001

Tel: 1300 363 992

or via the contact – complaints link on the Commission website: www.oaic.gov.au

8. Storage and protection

(a) We take reasonable steps to ensure your personal information is protected from misuse and loss, and from unauthorised access, modification or disclosure. We may hold your information in either electronic or hard copy form.

(b) While we use encryption to protect sensitive information transmitted online, we also protect your information offline. Only employees who need the information to perform a specific job (for example, billing or customer service) are granted access to personally identifiable information.

(c) The computers/servers in which we store personally identifiable information are kept in a secure environment.

(d) Personal information is destroyed or de-identified when no longer needed. Consistent with our commitment to privacy and data protection, we will delete or de-identify all client files seven years after the client’s last visit to our practice.

(e) As our website is linked to the internet, and the internet is inherently insecure, we cannot guarantee the security of information you disclose online. Any information disclosed online is at your own risk. No transmission over the Internet or method of electronic storage is failsafe.

9. Website use and Cookies

Please refer to our Website Terms and Conditions https://vetsofgeelong.com.au/ for more information.

9.1 Using our website

(a) Our website may contain links to other websites operated by third parties. We make no representations or warranties in relation to the privacy practices of any third-party website, and we are not responsible for the privacy policies or the content of any third party website. Third party websites are responsible for informing you about their own privacy practices.

(b) You acknowledge and agree that we are not responsible for the content, availability, advertisements, products, services, or any other materials on any linked websites, nor for any additional links contained within them or the actions of individuals associated with those websites.

(c) We may log IP addresses (that is, the electronic addresses of computers connected to the internet) to analyse trends, administer the website, provide relevant content to users, monitor fraudulent activity, and gather broad demographic information.

9.2 Cookies

We may use cookies—small data files stored on your web browser—to collect information about your browsing session. These cookies do not store personal information but may be used for the following purposes:

(a) Remembering your preferences on our website.

(b) Gathering general visitor and customer analytics for internal use.

(c) Conducting research to enhance our content, products, and online services.

(d) Assisting with direct marketing, if you have opted in.

(e) Supporting security measures, such as requiring you to re-login after a period of inactivity.

If you prefer not to receive cookies, you can disable them in your web browser settings. However, this may impact the functionality of our website. For guidance on adjusting your cookie preferences, refer to your browser’s ‘Help’ section.

10. General

This Privacy Policy and any use of our services are governed by the laws of Victoria, Australia and you agree to submit to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of Australia.

We reserve the right to update or modify Privacy Policy at any time. Any changes will be effective immediately upon posting the revised policy on our website. We encourage you to periodically review Privacy Policy to stay informed about how we are protecting the personal information we collect. The date of the last update is indicated at the top of Privacy Policy.

11. Contact us

If you have any questions or concerns about your privacy, please contact us:

Vets of Geelong Group

Locations: Highton, Geelong West, Lara

Highton: 18 Barrabool Rd, Highton VIC 3216

Geelong West: 130 Shannon Ave, Geelong West VIC 3218

Lara: 75 Forest Road South, Lara VIC 3212

Phone: 03-52430077
Email: jess.case@vetsofgeelong.com.au
Website: www.vetsofgeelong.com.au

Privacy Policy

Vets of Geelong
Privacy Policy

1. What is your Personal Information?

2. Collection

3. Use

4. Disclosure

5. Direct marketing materials

6. Access and Correction

7. Complaints

8. Storage and protection

9. Website use and Cookies

10. General

11. Contact us

Customer reviews

Follow us on Social Media

Our family, caring for yours

Our Services

Locations

Privacy Policy

Vets of GeelongPrivacy Policy

1. What is your Personal Information?

2. Collection

3. Use

4. Disclosure

5. Direct marketing materials

6. Access and Correction

7. Complaints

8. Storage and protection

9. Website use and Cookies

10. General

11. Contact us

Customer reviews

Follow us on Social Media

Our family, caring for yours

Our Services

Locations

Vets of Geelong
Privacy Policy