Privacy Policy

1. Audience

This policy applies to all visitors to our website and customers who have ordered the goods we provide (“you” and “your”).

2. Purpose of this policy

We respect your privacy and take the protection of personal information very seriously. The purpose of this policy is to describe the way we collect, store, use, and protect information that can be associated with a specific natural or juristic person and can be used to identify that person (“personal information”).

3. Personal information

Personal information includes:

  • certain information collected on registration (see below); and
  • optional information that you provide to us voluntarily (see below);

but excludes:

  • information that has been made anonymous so that it does not identify a specific person;
  • permanently de-identified information that does not relate or cannot be traced back to you specifically; and
  • non-personal statistical information collected and compiled by us and information that you have provided voluntarily in an open, public environment or forum including any blog, chat room, community, classifieds or discussion board. Because the information has been disclosed in a public forum, it is no longer confidential and does not constitute personal information subject to protection under this policy.

4. Acceptance of terms

4.1 Acceptance required

You must accept all the terms of this policy when you order any of our goods. If you do not agree with anything in this policy, then you may not order any of our goods.

4.2 Legal capacity

You may not access our website or order our goods if you are younger than 18 years old or do not have legal capacity to conclude legally binding contracts.

4.3 Deemed acceptance

By accepting this policy, you are deemed to have read, understood, accepted, and agreed to be bound by all its terms.

5. Changes

We may change the terms of this policy at any time. We will notify you of any changes by placing a notice in a prominent place on the website or by email. If you do not agree with the change you must stop using the website. If you continue to use the website following notification of a change to the terms, the changed terms will apply to you and you will be deemed to have accepted such terms.

6. Collection

We collect certain information: on registration, when you register on our website; from your web browser; from cookies we may send to your computer and from web beacons on our website to track how you use our website and to try and give you a personalised experience; and optional information, that you provide when you upload or download content from our website or when you enter competitions, take advantage of promotions, or respond to surveys.

6.1 On registration

Once you register on our website, you will no longer be anonymous to us as you will provide us with personal information. This personal information will include:

  • your name, surname, company name, company registration number, and VAT number;
  • your postal address, email address, telephone number, and postal code;
  • your username and password; and
  • your credit card number.

6.2 Collection on order

When you order any goods from us, you will be asked to provide us with additional information on a voluntary basis (“goods information”), like your contact details and delivery address.

6.3 Optional details

You may also provide additional information to us on a voluntary basis (“optional information”). This includes content or products that you decide to upload or download from our website or when you enter competitions, take advantage of promotions, respond to surveys, order certain additional goods, or otherwise use the optional features and functionality of the website.

6.4 Cookies

We may place small text files called ‘cookies’ on your device when you visit our website. These files do not contain personal information, but they do contain a personal identifier allowing us to associate your personal information with a certain device. These files serve a number of useful purposes for you, including:

  • granting you access to age restricted content;
  • tailoring our website’s functionality to you personally by letting us remember your preferences;
  • improving how our website performs;
  • allowing third parties to provide services to our website; and
  • helping us deliver targeted advertising where appropriate in compliance with applicable laws.

Your internet browser generally accepts cookies automatically, but you can often change this setting to stop accepting them. You can also delete cookies manually. However, no longer accepting cookies or deleting them will prevent you from accessing certain aspects of our website where cookies are necessary. Many websites use cookies and you can find out more about them at www.allaboutcookies.org.

6.5 Collection from browser

We automatically receive and record Internet usage information on our server logs from your browser, such as your Internet Protocol address (“IP address”), browsing habits, click patterns, version of software installed, system type, screen resolutions, colour capabilities, plug-ins, language settings, cookie preferences, search engine keywords, JavaScript enablement, the content and pages that you access on the website, and the dates and times that you visit the website, paths taken, and time spent on sites and pages within the website (“usage information”). Please note that other websites visited before entering our website might place personal information within your URL during a visit to it, and we have no control over such websites. Accordingly, a subsequent website that collects URL information may log some personal information.

6.6 Third party cookies

Please note that some of our business partners (e.g. advertisers) use their own cookies or widgets on website. We have no access to or control over them. Information collected by any such cookie or widget is governed by the privacy policy of the company that created it, and not by us.

6.7 Web beacons

Our website may contain electronic image requests (called a “single-pixel gif” or “web beacon” request) that allow us to count page views and to access cookies. Any electronic image viewed as part of a web page (including an ad banner) can act as a web beacon. Our web beacons do not collect, gather, monitor or share any of your personal information. We merely use them to compile anonymous information about our website.

6.8 Recording calls

We may monitor and record any telephone calls that you make to us, unless you specifically request us not to.

6.9 Purpose for collection

We may use any goods information and optional information that you provide to us for the purposes that you indicated when you agreed to provide it to us. We may use your usage information for the purposes described above and to:

  • remember your information so that you will not have to re-enter it during your visit or the next time you access the website;
  • monitor website usage metrics such as total number of visitors and pages accessed; and
  • track your entries, submissions, and status in any promotions or other activities in connection with your usage of the website.

7. Consent to collection

We will obtain your consent to collect personal information:

  • in accordance with applicable law; and
  • when you provide us with any registration information or optional information.

8. Use

We may use your information: to send you administrative messages and email updates to you regarding the website; for marketing purposes; or for targeted content in certain, specified instances. We may use your personal information to fulfil our obligations to you.

8.1 Messages and updates

We may send administrative messages and email updates to you about the website. In some cases, we may also send you primarily promotional messages. You can choose to opt-out of promotional messages.

8.2 Targeted content

While you are logged into the website, we may display targeted adverts and other relevant information based on the personal information. In a completely automated process, computers process the personal information and match it to adverts or related information. We never share personal information with any advertiser, unless you specifically provide us with your consent to do so. Advertisers receive a record of the total number of impressions and clicks for each advert. They do not receive any personal information. If you click on an advert, we may send a referring URL to the advertiser’s website identifying that a customer is visiting from the website. We do not send personal information to advertisers with the referring URL. Once you are on the advertiser’s website however, the advertiser is able to collect your personal information.

9. Disclosure

We might disclose your information in the specific circumstances mentioned in this policy.

9.1 Sharing

We may share your personal information with:

  • other divisions or companies within the group of companies to which we belong so as to provide joint content and services like registration, for transactions and customer support, to help detect and prevent potentially illegal acts and violations of our policies, and to guide decisions about our products, services, and communications (they will only use this information to send you marketing communications if you have requested their goods or services);
  • an affiliate, in which case we will seek to require the affiliates to honour this privacy policy;
  • our goods suppliers or service providers under contract who help supply certain goods or help with parts of our business operations, including fraud prevention, bill collection, marketing, technology services (our contracts dictate that these goods suppliers or service providers only use your information in connection with the goods they supply or services they perform for us and not for their own benefit);
  • credit bureaus to report account information, as permitted by law; and
  • banking partners as required by credit card association rules for inclusion on their list of terminated merchants (in the event that you utilise the services to receive payments and you meet their criteria).

9.2 Regulators

If you contact us regarding your experience with using any of our products, we may disclose your personal information as required by law or governmental audit.

9.3 Law enforcement

We may disclose personal information if required:

  • by a subpoena or court order;
  • to comply with any law;
  • to protect the safety of any individual or the general public; and
  • to prevent violation of our customer relationship terms.

9.4 No selling

We will not sell personal information. No personal information will be disclosed to anyone except as provided in this privacy policy.

9.5 Marketing purposes

We may disclose aggregate statistics (information about the customer population in general terms) about the personal information to advertisers or business partners.

9.6 Employees

We may need to disclose personal information to our employees that require the personal information to do their jobs.

9.7 Change of ownership

If we undergo a change in ownership, or a merger with, acquisition by, or sale of assets to, another entity, we may assign our rights to the personal information we process to a successor, purchaser, or separate entity. We will disclose the transfer on the website. If you are concerned about your personal information migrating to a new owner, you may request us to delete your personal information.

10. Security of personal information

Our hosting company will host our website in a secure server environment that uses a firewall and other advanced security measures to prevent interference or access from outside intruders. We authorise access to personal information only for those employees who require it to fulfil their job responsibilities.

11. Accurate and up to date

We will try to keep the personal information we collect as accurate, complete and up to date as is necessary for the purposes explicitly defined in this policy. From time to time we may request you to update your personal information on the website. You are able to review or update any personal information that we hold on you by accessing your account online, by emailing us, or by phoning us. Please note that in order to better protect you and safeguard your personal information, we take steps to verify your identity before granting you access to your account or making any corrections to your personal information.

12. Retention of personal information

We will only retain your personal information for as long as it is necessary to fulfil the purposes explicitly set out in this policy, unless:

  • retention of the record is required or authorised by law; or
  • you have consented to the retention of the record.

During the period of retention, we will continue to abide by our non-disclosure obligations and will not share or sell your personal information.

13. Transfer of personal information outside South Africa

We may transmit or transfer personal information outside South Africa to a foreign country. Personal information may be stored on servers located outside South Africa in a foreign country whose laws protecting personal information may not be as stringent as the laws in South Africa. You consent to us processing your personal information in a foreign country whose laws regarding processing of personal information may be less stringent.

14. Updating or removing

You may choose to correct or update the personal information you have submitted to us, by clicking the relevant menu in any of the pages on our website.

15. Limitation

We are not responsible for, give no warranties, nor make any representations in respect of the privacy policies or practices of linked or any third party websites.

16. Enquiries

If you have any questions or concerns arising from this privacy policy or the way in which we handle personal information, please contact us.

Notice

Gardens Pet Clinic or Dr Candice Cooper (Pty) Ltd may change this policy from time to time by updating this page. You should check this page from time to time to ensure that you are happy with any changes. This policy is effective from 1 September 2018.