At Melbourne Bullldog Clinic (MBC) and our related bodies (MBC, we, our, us), we recognise the importance of protecting the privacy of information collected about our clients and visitors to our website, in particular information that is capable of identifying an individual (“personal information”). This Privacy Policy governs the manner in which your personal information will be dealt with. This Privacy Policy should be reviewed periodically so that you remain updated on any changes.

 

  1. Our compliance

We respect your rights to privacy under the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (“Act”) and we comply with all of the Act’s requirements in respect of the collection, management and disclosure of your personal information. In this policy, the words ‘personal information’ have the meaning given to them in the Act, In general terms, it is any information that can be used to personally identify you. This may include your name, address, telephone number and email address. If the information we collect personally identifies you and your pet/animal, or you are reasonably identifiable from it, the information will be considered personal information.

 

  1. Purposes for collecting, holding, using and disclosing personal information

We collect, hold and use your personal information to provide safe and effective veterinary care to your pet/animal, to communicate with you about upcoming appointments, health checks, vaccination schedules and other related veterinary care matters, to answer your questions, provide you with information or advice (including general pet health advice) or consider and respond to requests or complaints made by you. If you are a candidate for employment, we may use your personal information to assess your suitability for a position at our clinic or related bodies.

The type of information that we collect from our clients and patients includes (but is not limited to):

  • Name and contact details (including residential or business address, email address, telephone number and emergency contact number);
  • Pet or animal ownership details; and
  • Insurance details (if applicable) for the treatment of your pet or animal

We may be required to collect your personal information under State and Territory veterinary surgeons legislation.

We may collect additional information at other times, including but not limited to, when you provide feedback, when you provide information about your personal or business affairs, change your content or email preference, respond to surveys and/or promotions, provide financial or credit card information.

Additionally, we may also collect any other information you provide while interacting with us.

 

  1. How MBC collects and holds personal information

MBC collects personal information directly from our clients or an individual or a person authorised by the individual via forms on our website, electronically, over the phone, or in person.

We may receive personal information from third parties such as referring veterinarians and/or pet insurance agencies (if applicable). If we do, we will protect it as set out in this Privacy Policy.

Personal information may be held by us in either written format on paper files, or in electronic format, or both. Personal information is held on our electronic system.

 

  1. Disclosure of personal information

Your personal information may be disclosed to MBC staff, related bodies, pathologists, insurers, professional advisers, agents, regulatory bodies, IT and financial or accounting software professionals, suppliers or subcontractors insofar as reasonably necessary for the purposes set out in this Policy. Personal information is only supplied to a third party when it is required for the delivery of our products or services or at your specific direction e.g. to your pet insurer.

We may from time to time need to disclose personal information to comply with a legal requirement, such as a law, regulation, court order, subpoena, warrant, in the course of a legal proceeding or in response to a law enforcement agency request.

We may also use your personal information to protect the copyright, trademarks, legal rights, property or safety of MBC, its customers or third parties.

Information that we collect may from time to time be stored, processed in or transferred between parties located in countries outside of Australia.

If there is a change of control in our business or a sale or transfer of business assets, we reserve the right to transfer to the extent permissible at law our user databases, together with any personal information and non-personal information contained in those databases. This information may be disclosed to a potential purchaser under an agreement to maintain confidentiality. We would seek to only disclose information in good faith and where required by any of the above circumstances.

By providing us with personal information, you consent to the terms of this Privacy Policy and the types of disclosure covered by this Policy. Where we disclose your personal information to third parties, we will request that the third party follow this Policy regarding handling your personal information.

 

  1. Correction to personal information

We endeavour to keep your personal information accurate, up-to-date and complete however you can assist us with this by letting us know if you notice errors or discrepancies in information we hold about you, and letting us know if your details change.

If you consider any personal information we hold about you is inaccurate, out-of-date, incomplete, please contact us.

 

  1. How we may contact you

We may send you direct marketing communications and information about our products and services that we consider may be of interest to you. These communications may be sent in various forms, including mail, SMS and email, in accordance with applicable marketing laws, such as the Spam Act 2003 (Cth). You consent to us sending you those direct marketing communications by any of those methods. If you indicate a preference for a method of communication, we will endeavour to use that method whenever practical to do so. In addition, at any time you may opt-out of receiving marketing communications from us by contacting us in writing to SAH@outlook.com.au or by calling us at MBC on (03) 9584 6100, or by using opt-out facilities provided in the marketing communications (where applicable) and we will then ensure that your name is removed from our mailing list.

We do not provide nor sell your personal information to other organisations for the purposes of direct marketing.

 

  1. Security of personal information

MBC takes reasonable steps to protect all information held by us (including your personal information) from misuse, interference and loss and from unauthorised access, modification or disclosure. We apply a range of technologies (including network firewalls, encryption and physical security) to protect your privacy and we review and update our security measures in light of current technologies. MBC securely destroys and de-identify any information which is no longer needed. Personal information which forms part of our veterinary surgeons’ treatment records must be maintained in accordance with legislative and professional requirements.

The transmission and exchange of information is carried out at your own risk. We cannot guarantee the security of any information that you transmit to us, or receive from us. Although we take measures to safeguard against unauthorised disclosures of information, we unfortunately cannot assure you that personal information that we collect will not be disclosed in a manner that is inconsistent with this Privacy Policy – as no data transmission over the Internet can be guaranteed to be totally secure.

Our employees and the contractors who provide services related to our information systems are obliged to respect the confidentiality of any personal information held by us.

 

  1. Payment information

Sensitive credit card payment details are never stored on our website.

If you place your order with us over the phone or request a refund, one of our team members will need to obtain your credit card details to process the transaction.

We will never request credit card information via email or instant messenger. These forms of communication are not secure enough for transmitting personal financial information. If you receive a request via any form other than via phone for your credit card information, please notify us immediately via our contact details below so we can notify the appropriate authority.

 

  1. Links to Other Sites

We occasionally provide links to websites outside of our websites, as well as to third party websites. These linked sites are not under our control, and we cannot accept responsibility for the conduct of companies linked to our website. Before disclosing your personal information on any other website, we advise you to examine the terms and conditions of using that website and its privacy statement.

 

  1. Privacy complaints handling process

Our Practice Manager deals with privacy complaints and any complaints should be directed to SAH@outlook.com.au.

We will respond to any Privacy Policy complaint in writing and will endeavour to remedy in a reasonable time frame depending on the complaint.

We will attempt to confirm as appropriate and necessary with you your understanding of the conduct relevant to the complaint and what you expect as an outcome. We will inform you whether we will conduct an investigation and the estimated completion date for the investigation process.

After we have completed our enquiries, we will contact you, usually in writing, to advise the outcome and invite a response to our conclusions about the complaint. If we receive a response from you, we will assess it and advise if we have changed our view.

 

  1. Changes to this Privacy policy

We reserve the right, at our discretion, to modify or remove portions of this Privacy Policy at any time. This Privacy Policy is in addition to any other terms and conditions applicable to the website. Any updated versions of this privacy policy will be updated here. We encourage you to periodically review the Privacy Policy for the latest information on our privacy practices.

This privacy policy was last updated on 6 May 2020.