Privacy Policy

VCA Animal Hospitals respects and is committed to protecting your privacy.This Privacy Statement describes the privacy practices of VCA and the veterinary hospitals owned, operated, or managed by us located in the United States.

This Privacy Statement provides you with information about how we collect, use, and share information we collect about our customers and visitors to our hospitals, websites, and users of our mobile applications (if any) (“Sites”), including your personal information, which is any information or combination of information that could reasonably be used to identify you.This Privacy Statement applies with respect to interactions with our customers and visitors, including:

• visitors to any of our hospitals;
• visitors to any of our Sites that link to this Privacy Statement;
• phone, email and text communications with us;
• social media interactions on our Sites and other third-party websites like Facebook, YouTube, Pinterest, Instagram, Twitter, etc.; and
• through or with third-parties who provide goods or services on our behalf.

This Privacy Statement does not apply to any Site that does not display or include a link or other reference to this Privacy Statement or that has its own privacy notice.

We encourage you to read this Privacy Statement carefully to understand our policies and practices regarding your information and how we will treat it.By visiting our hospitals, purchasing our products or services, and/or visiting or using our Sites, you consent to the data and information collection and use practices described in this Privacy Statement.

This Privacy Statement may change from time to time. By visiting our hospitals, purchasing our goods or services, or continuing to visit or use our Sites after we make changes is deemed to be acceptance of those changes, so please check this Privacy Statement periodically for updates. We will notify you of material changes to this Privacy Statement by posting a notice on our home page for a reasonable period of time and changing the “Last Updated” date of this Statement.

COLLECTION OF INFORMATION

Information We May Collect

We may collect various types of personal information about you, your purchase and use of our products and services, your use of our websites applications and their content.

Personal data – meaning information that could reasonably be used to identify you – that we collect may include:

• Identifying contact information, such as your name, home or work address, telephone number, email address, and other digital contact information.
• Demographic information, such as your ZIP code, age, gender, preferences, interests, and tastes.
• Internet or other similar network activity and information about your visit to our Sites, including access times, websites and apps you visit before and after you visit our Sites, information about interactions with any advertisement that may be included in our Sites, geo-location data, and information about your computer hardware and software, such as your IP address, browser type, and domain names.
• Information about your transactions with us, including for example your purchase history, and billing and shipping information, and other information about your use of our products or services.
• User names and other login credentials.
• Payment information, including information from your credit or debit card, PayPal or Venmo account, or other payment options.
• Online content you post or submit to us such as comments and photos through blogs, message boards, or social networking. opportunities or other interactive forums.
• Inferences drawn from other personal information.

We do not consider information we collect about your pet – like your pet’s species, breed, birthday, or treatment history – to be personal information.

How We Collect Information

We may collect data and information about you from a variety of sources and in a variety of ways, including:

• Directly from you, for example:
• From our affiliated companies,
• From other sources, for example,

USE OF YOUR INFORMATION

Our Use of Your Information

Your personal information may be used by us, and our affiliated companies, for various purposes, including:

• To fulfill your requests for, and enable your use of, our products and services, use of our Sites, including management of features.
• To communicate with you in connection with products or services you have purchased or requested, to respond to your questions or comments, and to provide you with updates, surveys, and news.
• To provide you with personalized content and information, according to past purchases, activities, demographic information, your interests and preferences, and other information.
• To send you brochures, coupons, samples, offers, and other information on our products or services, or the products or services of third parties.
• To enter you in contests, to notify you of results, and to register you for certain features, products, and services.
• To operate, maintain and improve the quality of our products, services, or the Sites.
• To enforce our terms and conditions.
• To manage our business.
• To process payment for any purchases, subscriptions or sales made on our Sites and to protect against or identify possible fraudulent transactions.
• For other legitimate business purposes, including legal compliance and scientific research.

How We May Share Your Information

We may share information we collect from you in the following ways:

• With our subsidiaries, affiliates, business partners, vendors, or agents.For example, we may share your information with third party service providers that we engage for various purposes, including, without limitation, processing, analyzing and/or storing data, printing and mailing services, email and texting services, billing and collections, customer support and delivery of products.To the extent applicable, we require these entities to comply with this Privacy Statement and appropriate confidentiality and security measures.
• In an aggregated, or anonymized form with our customers and partners, including potential affiliate partners in academia and industry, as well as for other commercial relationships or other purposes.
• When we have a good faith belief that (i) access, use, preservation, or disclosure, of such information is reasonably necessary to satisfy any applicable law, regulation, legal process, such as a court order or subpoena, or a request by law enforcement or governmental authorities, (ii) such action is appropriate to enforce our Terms of Service for the Sites, including any investigation of potential violations thereof, (iii) such action is necessary to detect, prevent, or otherwise address fraud, security or technical issues associated with the Sites or our services, or (iv) such action is appropriate to protect the rights, property or safety of our Company, our employees, users of the Sites, or others.
• If we or any of our affiliates become involved in a merger, acquisition, or other transaction, involving the sale of some or all of our assets, we may disclose your information to third parties in connection with the evaluation, financing, and/or consummation of the transaction, and your information could be included in the assets transferred as part of the transaction.
• To fulfill the purpose for which you provided the information.
• For any other purpose disclosed by us when you provide the information.
• At your direction or request or with your consent.

We do not sell your personal information to third parties. We may sell anonymized data to third parties, and we may share anonymized or non-personally identifying information we collect under any of the above circumstances, and also to develop and deliver targeted advertising on our Sites.

OPT-OUT FROM PROMOTIONAL OFFERS FROM US?

Whether or not you have previously opted in, if you no longer wish to have your personal contact information used by us to promote our own, our affiliates, or third parties’ products or services, send us an email stating your request to [email protected], include “Opt-Out” in the subject box and include your name and email address in the text box.

If we have sent you a promotional email, you may also follow the unsubscribe process at the bottom of the email to opt-out of receiving additional promotional emails from us. In some instances, we may request your consent in advance of sending you promotional emails, and by declining to provide consent, you will not receive certain emails from us.

Even if you choose not to receive promotional emails, you may still receive emails that facilitate, complete or confirm a commercial transaction that you have already agreed to enter with us, such as communications about your pet’s health and appointment reminders, the completion of your registration, correction of user data, password reset requests, confirmation of transactions, shipping notices, and other similar communications essential to your transactions with us.

TEXT MESSAGING

We may offer text/SMS messaging communications to you as part of the products and services available from us. In some circumstances, we might require you to opt in to receive text communications from us. At any time, you may opt out of receiving particular text messaging communications from us (other than Text Appointment Reminders) by texting the word STOP in response to any text message. After you opt-out, a confirmation message may be sent to you indicating your participation in the text messaging communication portion of the offered product or service was terminated and that you will no longer receive additional text messages from us.

Unless expressly noted, all text messaging services are offered without charge to you.Message, data rates and other charges may apply.You are liable for any mobile phone charges incurred (usage, subscription, etc.) as a result of using any of our products or services.Please consult your mobile service carrier’s pricing plan to determine the charges for sending and receiving text messages. For information about Text Appointment Reminder text messages, please click here https://vcahospitals.com/text-appt-alert-terms.

INTENDED FOR USERS OVER 13 YEARS OF AGE

The privacy of children is very important to us. Although the Sites are intended for use by persons at least 13 years of age, we cannot prohibit minors from visiting the Sites and must rely on parents and guardians (at least 18 years of age at time of use) to decide which materials are appropriate for children under 13.

We will not knowingly collect or store personal information from children under the age of 13.If you become aware that a child under 13 years of age has registered for an online account with us or otherwise provided us with their personal information, please report such use to [email protected].If we become aware of a user under the age of 13 providing information on our Site without parental permission, we will terminate that account and purge our databases of personal information provided by that user to the extent reasonably feasible.

SECURITY OF YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION

We have implemented administrative, physical and technical safeguards designed to protect your personal information. No security measures can be 100% secure, however, and so we recommend that you take additional measures to protect yourself and your information, including by installing up to date anti-virus software, closing browsers after use, keeping confidential your log-in credentials and passwords, and making sure that you regularly update software and apps you have downloaded to ensure you have enabled the latest security features on your devices

WHERE WE STORE INFORMATION

Personal information we may collect may be stored and processed in the United States or any other country where we or our affiliates, subsidiaries or service providers maintain facilities. The personal information may be stored outside your country and in a country that does not have the same privacy laws as your country.

VISITING OUR SITES FROM OUTSIDE THE UNITED STATES

This Privacy Statement is intended to cover collection of information on or via our website from residents of the United States. If you are visiting our website from outside the United States, please be aware that the data protection and other laws of the United States may differ from your country. Please be assured that we seek to take reasonable steps to ensure that your privacy is protected. By using our services, you understand that your information may be transferred to our facilities in the United States or other countries, or shared with third parties in other countries.

LINKS TO THIRD PARTY WEBSITES

We may offer links to websites operated by third parties.We are not responsible for the privacy practices of such other websites.We encourage you to review the privacy policies of any third party websites you visit.

USE OF COOKIES

As you interact with our Sites, we may use automatic data collection technologies to collect certain information about your equipment, browsing actions and patterns, including:

• Details of your visits to each Site, including traffic data, geo-location data, logs and other communication data, and the resources that you access and use on the Site.
• Information about your computer and internet connection, including your IP address, operating system, and browser type.

We may use cookies and similar technology to:

• automatically collect information to support certain functions at our Sites to understand our visitors, for example by estimating our audience size and usage patterns,
• recognize you when you return to our Sites, in order to make the visit easier for you,
• offer tailored content, including ads or promotions on our Sites, or on non-affiliated third-party websites and mobile applications, sometimes using information collected through technology at one of our affiliates’ websites and sometimes through third-party networks.

Service providers or publishers may display ads for our products or services at unaffiliated third-party websites or mobile applications based on your online activities. We support self-regulatory programs for this practice, called interest-based advertising or online behavioral advertising.  Please note that third party websites, at which you might see our ads have their own privacy statements and use technologies which we do not control. We encourage you to read those policies carefully.

The information we collect automatically typically does not include personal information, but we may maintain it or associate it with personal information we collect in other ways or receive from third parties.

What are cookies?

“Cookies” are data files that are sent to your computer or device while you are viewing the Sites. These data files include information that allows us to remember important information that will make your use of the Site more efficient and useful to you.

How do we use cookies to personalize your experience at our Sites?

Cookie technology helps us deliver content tailored to a visitor’s interests, and allows us to make ordering products and services, and offering other functions at our Sites easier for our visitors and users.

To make your visits as easy as possible with the technology you use, we also automatically keep track of information like the type of browser (e.g., Internet Explorer, Safari, or Firefox) and operating system (e.g., Windows, Mac-OS X) you use, your IP address, domain name of your Internet service provider, websites visited before and after the Site or App, pages viewed and activities at our Sites, and advertisements seen or clicked on.

Do third parties use cookies on our site?

We may allow third parties to advertise on our Sites or automatically collect information from our Sites for purposes of advertising. These third parties may place cookies on your computer for these purposes. We do not control the cookies of third parties.

Most web browsers automatically accept cookies, but you can usually modify your browser setting to decline cookies if you prefer.There are also free programs you can download which would allow you to set your preferences and block the vast majority of third-party cookies across the Internet.

If you choose to decline cookies, you may not be able to fully experience all features of the Sitesor other websites you visit.

What are web beacons and how do we use them?

Some of the pages of our Sites and our emails may contain electronic images called “web beacons” (sometimes known as one-pixel GIFs, clear GIFs, or pixel tags). Web beacons allow us to count visitors who have viewed our Sites, helping to indicate the popularity of the page content. In email messages, promotional materials, and newsletters, web beacons allow us to count how many subscribers have read them, and verifying the address provided, system, and server integrity. Web beacons allow us to develop statistical information about the activities and features that most interest our consumers for the purpose of providing more personalized content.

WHAT ARE OUR POLICIES REGARDING ONLINE INTERNET-BASED ADVERTISING?

We support the Self-Regulatory Principles for Online Behavioral Advertising of the Digital Advertising Alliance in the US and for US consumers. More information about these Principles can be found here. Advertisements that we place online using interest-based data are expected to be delivered with the Advertising Option Icon to help consumers understand how their data is being collected and used and to provide choices for consumers who want more control. The Advertising Option Icon looks like this:

By clicking on the Advertising Option Icon when it appears, you can review information (and follow information) regarding online interest-based advertisements, including who is collecting and using your online data, how you can opt-out from receiving such advertisements, and more.

How do we serve advertisements through online interest-based advertising?

At times we may display ads both on our Sites and on the websites of third parties. When you visit one of our Sites or view ads that we serve elsewhere online, you may see different kinds of ads, such as text ads next to search results or video ads on web pages. Sometimes, these ads are based on the content of the pages on which they appear. Other times, these ads are generated by matching the particular ad to your interests as inferred from your online activities that have been collected over time. With interest-based advertising, the goal is to show you ads that are most relevant to you.

To do this, we and some of our advertising companies use technologies such as cookies and web beacons to collect information about your interaction with our Sites and other third-party websites (“Online Data”). This Online Data generally does not identify you to us personally and, typically, it is aggregated with other data to create segments – groups of users and certain general interest categories that we have inferred based on a variety of factors (for example, sports fan). The Online Data can include:

• the webpages, products and services you view and links you click when using our Sites and services as well as third-party websites;
• our emails that you view and links you click on within that email;
• whether you view or click on ads that are shown to you;
• demographic or interest data, including general geographic location derived from IP address; and
• the search terms you enter when using certain search services.

We and our third-party advertising partners use this Online Data to paint a more accurate picture of the interests of the audiences with which we interact – including you – so that we can serve ads that are more relevant to those interests.

In addition, our third-party advertising partners use this Online Data for a variety of other purposes, including (a) in conjunction with advertising that appears on our website or other websites, (b) for reporting website traffic, statistics, advertisement data and other interaction with ads and the websites on which they are served, and (c) to measure the effectiveness of web-based and email advertisements.

Why would you want to receive interest-based ads?

Consumers like to receive interest-based ads for many different reasons. Interest-based ads are helpful because they are more tailored to your particular interests. For example, cat owners may see more ads for cat food and fewer ads for dog grooming services. Interest-based ads also are more likely to help you discover new products and services that are actually relevant to you and your interests. For example, dog owners may see an ad about the latest dog-grooming products, whereas cat owners might be more likely to see an ad for the latest feline hairball solution. In short, receiving interest-based ads can help to improve your access to new products, services, and features that are most relevant to you. You also will not see the same ads over and over from us because the number of times you see a particular interest-based ad is limited. By opting-out of interest-based ads, you lose all of these benefits.

A Note on Google Analytics — To help facilitate the delivery of relevant content, we use Google Analytics Advertising Features, which you can learn more about and opt-out from here.

How can you opt out of receiving interest-based ads from us?

If you are no longer interested in receiving interest-based ads from any of our Sites, you can opt out by contacting us using the information below. Please note, however, that opting out does not mean you will no longer see ads from us online. It simply means that the online ads from us you do see will not be based on your particular interests.

Depending on where you live, you may be able to access one convenient place to indicate your preferences, including the option to make one “universal” opt-out of interest-based advertising with participating entities:

In the United States, visit this site: Ad Choices.

In Canada, visit this site: Your Ad Choices.

In the EU, visit this site: Your Online Choices.

You can also generally opt out of receiving interest-based ads from third party advertisers who are members of the Network Advertising Initiative (“NAI”) or who follow the Digital Advertising Alliance (“DAA”) Self-Regulatory Principles for Online Behavioral Advertising by visiting the opt-out pages on the NAI website and DAA website.

When you opt out using these methods, a cookie will be placed on your device indicating that you have opted out of interest-based advertising. If you delete your cookies, you will need to opt out again. These websites also provide detailed information about interest-based advertising and tips for managing your online privacy.

HOW WE RESPOND TO DO-NOT-TRACK DISCLOSURES

We do not support “Do Not Track” browser settings and do not currently participate in any Do Not Track frameworks that would allow us to respond to signals or other mechanisms from you regarding the collection of your personal information.

CONTACT INFORMATION

If you have a question or concern about our privacy practices, please contact us at [email protected].

CHANGES TO THIS PRIVACY STATEMENT

We may occasionally update this Privacy Statement. We encourage you to periodically review this Privacy Statement to be informed of how we use and protect your information.You will be bound by any changes to our Privacy Statement after such changes to our Privacy Statement have been posted. We will notify you of material changes to this Privacy Statement by posting a notice on our home page for a reasonable period of time and changing the “Last Updated” date of this Statement.

The Sites are administered and maintained by VCA Inc.Use of any Site is governed by the applicable terms of use and indicates acceptance of such terms.To view our Terms of Use, please click here.

FOR RESIDENTS OF CALIFORNIA

California law permits residents of California to request from us what personal information we have about them and where and why we got it, what personal information is being used for, and whether personal information is disclosed or sold to any third parties. California residents also have the right to request that a business delete their personal information, with certain exceptions as provided by law.

• California residents can make a request related to these rights by clicking VCA Privacy Request Web Form. Please note that we do not sell your personal information.

If you are a California resident, you may also make a request by calling 1-844-276-5786.

There are restrictions regarding the number of times you can exercise these rights.You may designate an authorized agent to make a request on your behalf. Such agent must be registered with the California Secretary of State. We may deny a request from an agent that does not submit proof that they have been authorized by you to act on your behalf.

We may need to confirm and verify your request before responding, and, for example, may ask for you to confirm data points we already have about you. We will only use personal information provided in a consumer request to verify your identity or authority to make the request.

Last updated August 26, 2020.