Overview

We've created a community where Veterinarians can share their insights and make better purchasing decisions. In doing so, we interface with many different services, and collect and store information necessary for the effective use of the platform. This policy describes what information we collect and how it is used and shared.

As you review our policy, keep in mind that it applies to all Vetcove products and services that do not have a separate privacy policy or that link to this policy, which we call the “Vetcove Services” or “Services.”

I. What kinds of information do we collect?

Depending on which Services you use, as your authorized agent we collect different kinds of information about your business, company, clinic, group, or other entity you represent, as well as information about you, our user.

• Information you provide. We collect the content and other information you provide when you use our Services, including when you sign up for an account, or when you contribute to our discussion community. This can include text, as well as contextual information such as a date and time actions were taken. It also includes encrypted and hashed versions of account information from third parties that are provided by you and used by Vetcove in the course of offering our Services.
• Things you do. As you use our Services, we collect information about the actions you take. This may include information about how you use our Services, such as when you search for or view products, or when you add products to your Vetcove cart. This information may include text of queries, product IDs, or supplier IDs, as well as contextual information, such as when an action was taken, or how many times an action was taken.
• Purchase history. As your authorized agent, Vetcove retrieves on your behalf and stores information about your purchases with third-party websites that you’ve authorized Vetcove to access.
• Device information. We collect information from or about the computers, tablets, phones, or other devices where you access our Services. This may include attributes such as the operating system, hardware version, device settings, and device identifiers. It may also include device locations, including specific geographic locations, such as through GPS, Bluetooth, or WiFi signals, as well as connection information such as the name of your mobile operator or ISP, IP address, browser type, language, or time zone.

II. How do we use this information?

We are passionate about creating the safest and most enriching experience possible for our users. We use all of the information we have to help us provide and support our Services. Here’s how:

• Provide our Services. Using the information you provide, we are able to deliver our Services with personalized content that is intended to help your business. This includes information we retrieve as your authorized agent from third-party services that is organized and displayed for you on Vetcove, such as product pricing and availability information. The information you provide also allows us to send information back to third-party services, such as when you add an item to a third-party eCommerce cart. Additionally, information about how you use and interact with our services helps us personalize content to maximize the relevancy of our Services to you. For instance, your recently viewed or recently added to cart items are used in lists and recommendations to improve your experience with our Services. Other information collected during your use of the Services may be used, in aggregate with data from other users, to provide features of the Services, such as a display of popular or trending products.
• Improve our Services. Information largely about how you use our Services is anonymized and used by the Vetcove team, from time to time, to improve our Services. For instance, how frequently features or user interface elements are used help us determine the merit of those features or interface elements, and helps us improve our Services for all users. We may test features in development, or issue voluntary surveys from time to time, the results of which will also be used to evaluate and improve our Services. Information about device information and geographic location are used primarily in aggregated form to improve future development of our services, or to troubleshoot bugs experienced by our users.
• Support the community. Information you provide, especially contributions to Vetcove discussions, are stored and displayed publicly for other users, with the intention of helping your veterinary peers improve their businesses. Aggregated and anonymized information about how our users collectively use our Services may be published or circulated to provide the veterinary community with insights on peer buying habits.
• Communicate with you. We use your information to communicate with you about our Services, and let you know about our policies and terms. We also use your information to respond to you when you contact us. We may in the future use your information to send you marketing communications when you are opted-in to receive such communications in your communications preferences, such as manufacturer discounts, specials, and exclusive offers relevant to your business.
• Show and measure ads and services. Vetcove provides manufacturers, suppliers, and service providers the ability to display ads that are viewable in the course of using the Services. If and when Vetcove begins to offer advertising or marketing services, we plan to use the information we have to improve our advertising and measurement systems so we can show you relevant ads on our Services and measure the effectiveness and reach of ads.
• Promote safety and security. We use the information we have to help verify accounts and activity, and to promote safety and security on our Services, such as by investigating suspicious activity, unauthorized use of our Services, or violations of our terms or policies. We work hard to protect your account information and the privacy of your connected accounts using teams of engineers, automated systems, and advanced technology such as encryption and machine learning.

Like most web services, Vetcove uses cookies and similar technologies to provide and support our Services and each of the uses outlined and described in this section of our policy. Vetcove will not, now or in the future, use your pricing information (even if aggregated or de-identified), including group purchasing (GPO) and corporate hospital group pricing for any purpose other than displaying price information to you.

III. How is this information shared?

Sharing On Our Services

Some information you provide with the intent of sharing on Vetcove is collected, stored, and shared with other Vetcove users, including the following:

• Discussions you’ve written or commented on. When you contribute to a discussion on Vetcove, that information is publicly shared and viewable by all users on Vetcove.
• Reviews and Q&A activity is only accessible to Vetcove users with active accounts in good standing, and is not entirely public in the sense that non-users will not be able to access or view the information through search engines or other methods.

Sharing Off Our Services

In a few select circumstances, information may be shared with parties outside of Vetcove to provide, improve, or preserve the integrity of our Services:

• Third-party supplier integrations. When you’ve authorized us to connect your third-party supplier accounts to Vetcove, select information is shared with those services, including items added to or removed from carts, or quantities desired changed in carts. All information shared with or received from these third parties is used exclusively to provide our Services. When you authorize Vetcove to share your information with third party suppliers, your information will be shared in the same manner as if you were using such third party suppliers services directly. We do not reveal your use of Vetcove to third party suppliers without your consent.
• Sharing within Vetcove. We share information we have about you within Vetcove to provide and improve our Services. Some information, such as login information to third-party services, is not viewable or accessible by Vetcove since it is transmitted to us in code and stored in an encrypted and hashed format.
• New authorized user of account. If due to personnel changes your account needs to be transferred to a new authorized representative at your businesses, some account information may be shared with the new representative at the discretion of Vetcove to preserve the integrity of the account.
• New owner. If the ownership or control of all or part of our Services or their assets changes, we may transfer your information to the new owner.

Possible Future Sharing With Third-Party Partners and Customers

Vetcove does not share any information with any third-party partners aside from the systems of those third-party suppliers whose accounts you have authorized us to connect to Vetcove, as mentioned in the previous section.

However, in the future Vetcove may work with third party companies to help us provide and improve our Services or who use advertising or related products, which makes it possible to operate our company and provide free services to veterinarians around the world. Here are the types of third parties we may, at some point in the future, share information with about you:

• Advertising, Measurement and Analytics Services (Non-Personally Identifiable Information Only). We want our advertising to be as relevant and interesting as the other information you find on our Services. With this in mind, we would use all of the information we have about you to show you relevant ads. We will not share information that personally identifies you (personally identifiable information is information like name or email address that can by itself be used to contact you or identifies who you are) with advertising, measurement or analytics partners unless you give us permission. We may provide these partners with information about the reach and effectiveness of their advertising without providing information that personally identifies you, or if we have aggregated the information so that it does not personally identify you. For example, we may tell an advertiser how its ads performed, or how many people viewed their ads, or provide non-personally identifying demographic information (such as 3-veterinarian equine clinic in New Jersey) to these partners to help them understand their audience or customers, but only after the advertiser has agreed to abide by the advertiser guidelines that govern all advertising on Vetcove.
• Vendors, service providers and other partners (Non-Personally Identifiable Information Only). In the future, we may transfer information to vendors, service providers, and other partners who globally support our business, such as providing technical infrastructure services, analyzing how our Services are used, measuring the effectiveness of ads and services, providing customer service, facilitating payments, or conducting academic research and surveys. These partners must adhere to strict confidentiality obligations in a way that is consistent with this Privacy Policy and the agreements we enter into with them.

Vetcove will not share or transmit, to any third party, any personally-identifiable or clinic-identifiable data without their express consent or as required by law. This includes data collected about product purchases, pricing, order history or analytics data, or actions taken on Vetcove. Furthermore, Vetcove will not, now or in the future, share your pricing information (even if aggregated or de-identified), including but not limited to group purchasing (GPO) and corporate hospital group pricing with any third party for any reason. In the future, certain data, other than pricing, collected and stored by Vetcove may be utilized by third parties, but the identities of the supplier, hospital or clinic, hospital group, or personnel, will not be revealed or transmitted to these third parties for any reason.

IV. How can I manage or delete information about me or my clinic?

You can manage the content and information you share when you use Vetcove through your Account Settings. You’ll be able to see a history of all reviews you’ve written or commented on, as well as questions you’ve asked and answered. You’ll also be able to disconnected third-party supplier accounts you’ve connected to Vetcove.

We store data for as long as it is necessary to provide products and services to you and others, including those described above. Information associated with your account will be kept until your account is deleted, unless we no longer need the data to provide products and services.

You can delete your account (including your pricing information) any time by contacting us by email at support@vetcove.com. When you delete your account, we may delete or anonymize things you have posted, such as your reviews or Q&A activity. If you do not want to delete your account, but want to temporarily stop using Vetcove, you may stop using Vetcove at any time, and your account information will be preserved.

V. How do we respond to legal requests or prevent harm?

We may access, preserve and share your information in response to a legal request (like a search warrant, court order or subpoena) if we have a good faith belief that the law requires us to do so. This may include responding to legal requests from jurisdictions outside of the United States where we have a good faith belief that the response is required by law in that jurisdiction, affects users in that jurisdiction, and is consistent with internationally recognized standards. We may also access, preserve and share information when we have a good faith belief it is necessary to: detect, prevent and address fraud and other illegal activity; to protect ourselves, you and others, including as part of investigations. For example, we may provide information to third-party partners about the reliability of your account to prevent fraud and abuse on and off of our Services. Information we receive about you, including financial transaction data related to purchases made with Vetcove if and when such services are offered by Vetcove may be accessed, processed, and retained for an extended period of time when it is the subject of a legal request or obligation, governmental investigation, or investigations concerning possible violations of our terms or policies, or otherwise to prevent harm. We also may retain information from accounts disabled for violations of our terms for at least a year to prevent repeat abuse or other violations of our terms.

VI. How will we notify you of changes to this policy?

We’ll notify you when we make any material changes to this policy by email and/or public announcement to give you a chance to thoroughly review the changes before continuing use of our Services.

VII. How to contact Vetcove with questions

You can contact us at any time by email via team@vetcove.com, or by using our Contact Us form. For all mail inquiries, please use the following address: