Privacy Statement

This privacy statement explains how Franklin Vets collects, stores, uses and shares your personal information.

Openness and transparency are important to us. The Privacy Act 2020 requires us – like any other New Zealand organisation– to tell you certain things about the personal information we need to carry out our functions. This is where we explain our privacy practices and why you can trust us to handle your information with care and respect.

We have categorised our statutory functions into two broad groups: Compliance and Engagement. Under these groups, we explain what personal information we collect and how we use or share it. We also explain about the way we store and protect personal information and your rights to access and correct it.

In short, here are a few key privacy messages to note:

We only collect personal information where this is necessary to carry out our functions
We may collect personal information from another Veterinary provider, or agency, but only with your prior consent
We store all our client data (including your personal information) on ezyVet. We protect our data with all reasonable technical and process controls
You can ask us for a copy of your personal information at any time.
We will only use and share personal information where necessary to carry out the functions for which we collected it, or if required by law

If you cannot find the information you need, or you have concerns about the way we are managing your personal information, then please contact us at any time:

hr@fvs.co.nz, or 09 298 1439, or PO Box 459, Pukekohe 2340

We may update this privacy statement from time to time, for example to reflect changes to the Privacy Act, so feel free to check in again occasionally to see what might have changed. This statement was last updated in August 2023.

Information collected directly from you

Most of the personal information we collect is provided directly by you, when you engage with us and ask us to be your veterinary provider of choice, or when we request it from you.

You do not have to provide your personal information to us. However, we may not be able to effectively provide you with services or carry out our functions if you do not provide us with the information we need.

The personal information we may collect from you directly includes:

your name
your contact details, including your address, email address and phone number
information about your authorised representative (if you have one)
any documents or other information you provide to us as part of your animal’s health records
interactions and correspondence with us
billing or purchase information
your responses to satisfaction surveys we ask you to complete (these are usually anonymous).

What we do with your personal information

How we use it

We will use your personal information to:

communicate with you
inform you of our range of products and services (unless you have unsubscribed from electronic messages)
manage microchipping registration
accounting purposes (for instance billing, credit checks)
communicate with an agency about a notified privacy breach
review and improve the delivery of our services, including surveys
inform of patient history and treatment plans
follow up on customer enquiries

When we share information:

Besides our team, we may share this information with:

Debt collection agencies if required to recover any debts owed
With another agency, such as SPCA or MPI if required by law

Storage and retention

We use third-party providers to store and process our data.

We store most of the client information we collect and generate electronically on ezyVet. We also use Microsoft Office 365 for our email and other office productivity applications.

Security

We take all reasonable steps to ensure the personal information we collect is protected against loss, unauthorised access and disclosure or any other misuse, as required by the Privacy Act 2020.

We ensure that our third-party data processors can meet our privacy and security requirements. We are satisfied, for example, that Microsoft has adequate security and privacy safeguards in place to protect the information it holds on our behalf.