Privacy Policy

Version 01

Last Update: May 2024 

We at Galaxy Vets Healthcare System Inc. d/b/a Danville Family Vet (“we”, “us”, “the Company”, or “Galaxy Vets”) value your privacy and are committed to keeping your Personal Data confidential. “Personal Data” means any information about an identifiable individual. This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, disclose, and protect Personal Data when you use our website (www.familyvet.org), any Affiliated Website (as defined below), any sub-domain provided by Galaxy Vets, or any related mobile site (collectively, the “Website”) and our services (the “Services”). It also explains how you can contact us if you have any questions about how we handle Personal Data. 

An “Affiliated Website” is any website of a hospital or clinic that is within the Galaxy Vets network of veterinary facilities and is run, operated, and/or managed by Galaxy Vets or any of its affiliates, entities, subsidiaries, or the like.

Note regarding third-party sites: Our Website and Services may contain links to other sites that are not operated by us. If you click a third-party link, you will be directed to that third party’s site. We strongly advise you to review the privacy policy(ies) of every site you visit. Galaxy Vets has no control over and assumes no responsibility for the content, privacy policies, or practices of any third-party sites or services. This Privacy Policy does not apply to your use of or access to any third-party sites or services.

BY ACCESSING AND/OR USING THE WEBSITE AND/OR SERVICES, YOU ARE ACKNOWLEDGING THAT YOU HAVE READ AND UNDERSTOOD THIS POLICY AND AGREE TO COLLECTION, USE, DISCLOSURE, AND OTHER PROCESSING OF YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION AS DESCRIBED IN THIS PRIVACY POLICY. 

Please note that we occasionally update this Privacy Policy, and it is your responsibility to stay up to date with any amended versions. Any changes to this Privacy Policy will be effective immediately upon its posting to the Website and will apply to all Personal Data that we maintain, use, and disclose. If you continue to use the Website and/or Services following such notice, you are agreeing to those changes. 

If you have any questions or concerns after reading this Privacy Policy, please contact us at [email protected]. We appreciate your feedback. 

Collection and use of personal data

What Personal Data Does Galaxy Vets Collect?

We collect Personal Data about you when you provide it to us or use our Services. We may also collect information about you from certain third parties. In most cases, you decide what information you provide to us. There may be instances where, if you choose not to provide us with Personal Data, we may not be able to fully provide Services to you. We collect three types of information from our customers: (i) pet parent data; (ii) pet health data; and (iii) technology data. Each category of data is explained in more detail below. 

Pet Parent Data: Galaxy Vets collects data from pet parents, which may include, but is not limited to, the pet parent’s first and last name, zip code, email address, home address, and phone number. 

Pet Health Data: Galaxy Vets may collect pet health data from pet parents which may include, but is not limited to, your pet’s name, age, location, species, breed, microchip ID, medical history, symptoms, lifestyle, and communications between you and a Galaxy Vets provider regarding Services provided to your pet. We may also collect pet health data from third parties who have treated your pet. 

Technology Data: We use common information-gathering tools, such as log files, cookies, web beacons, and similar technologies to automatically collect information, which may contain Personal Data from your computer or mobile device as you navigate the Website or interact with emails or other communications we have sent you. The information we collect may include your IP address (or proxy server), device and application identification numbers, location, browser type, Internet service provider and/or mobile carrier, the pages and files you viewed, your searches, your operating system and system configuration information, and date/time stamps associated with your usage. This information is used to analyze overall trends, help us provide and improve our Services, and ensure the proper functioning and security of the Website and the Services. 

We do not control, process, or store any of your payment information. We use a third-party payment processor to manage all of the payments that take place on our Website or at our business location. Such transactions are encrypted using a certified technology that the third-party processor uses as part of its system. 

How Will Galaxy Vets Use Your Personal Data? 

Galaxy Vets processes your Personal Data based on legitimate business interests, the fulfillment of our Services to you and your pet, compliance with our legal obligations, and/or your consent. We only use or disclose your Personal Data when it is legally mandated or where it is necessary to fulfill those purposes described in this Privacy Policy. Where required by law, we will ask for your prior consent before disclosing your Personal Data to a third party. 

More specifically, Galaxy Vets processes your Personal Data for the following legitimate business purposes: 

• To provide you with information, products, or Services;
• To present the Website and its contents to you; 
• To verify and confirm your identity;
• To respond to questions that you send by email or text or to assist us in monitoring your pet’s health and overall condition;
• To properly store and track your data within our system; 
• To respond to lawful requests from public and government authorities, and to comply with applicable state/federal law, including cooperation with judicial proceedings and court orders; 
• To protect our rights, privacy, safety, or property, and/or that of you or others by providing proper notices, pursuing available legal remedies, and acting to limit our damages; 
• To manage and improve our business operations; 
• To manage and improve the Website, including the development of additional functionality; 
• To evaluate the quality of services you receive, identify usage trends, and improve your user experience; 
• To customize the Website and to keep it safe and secure; and
• To send you information about changes to our terms, conditions, and policies.

We may generate de-identified data from Personal Data collected through the Website and Services by removing information that makes the data personally identifiable to an individual. Such de-identified data includes, but is not limited to, information we collect from your use of the Website and Services. We may use this de-identified data and aggregated data for any reasonable purpose subject to applicable laws.

Where Is Personal Data Processed?

The Personal Data we collect will be stored on secure servers in the United States. Personal Data may be transmitted to third parties, which parties may store or maintain the data on their secure servers. 

With Whom Does Galaxy Vets Share Personal Data? 

SMS Opt-In consent and the phone numbers we collect will not be shared with third parties under any circumstance.

We may share your Personal Data with the following categories of individuals/entities: 

Business Partners and Vendors: We share Personal Data with a limited number of partners, service providers, and other persons/entities who help run our business (“Business Partners”). Specifically, we may employ third-party companies and individuals to facilitate our Services, provide Services on our behalf, perform Service-related functions, or assist us in analyzing how our Services are used. Our Business Partners are contractually bound to protect your Personal Data and to use it only for the limited purpose(s) for which it is shared. Business Partners’ use of Personal Data may include, but is not limited to, the provision of services such as data hosting, IT services, and customer services. 

Our Advisors: We may share your Personal Data with third parties that provide advisory services to Galaxy Vets, including, but not limited to, our lawyers, auditors, accountants, and banks (collectively, “Advisors”). Personal Data will only be shared with Advisors if Galaxy Vets has a legitimate business interest in the sharing of such data. 

Galaxy Vets Service Providers: As part of the Services, we will share your Personal Data with Galaxy Vets Service Providers. If at any point you want to deny access to one or more Galaxy Vets Service Providers, you can do so by emailing [email protected].

Third Parties Upon Your Direction or Consent: You may direct Galaxy Vets to share your Personal Data with third parties. Upon your request and consent, we may share such Personal Data with those third parties that you identify. 

Third Parties Pursuant to Business Transfers: In the event of a reorganization, merger, sale, joint venture, assignment, transfer, or other disposition of all or any portion of Galaxy Vets’ corporate entity, assets, or stock (including in connection with any bankruptcy or similar proceedings), we may share your Personal Data with a third party. 

Government and Law Enforcement Authorities: If reasonable and necessary, we may share your Personal Data to (i) comply with legal processes or enforceable governmental requests, or as otherwise required by law; (ii) cooperate with third parties in investigating acts or omissions that violate this Privacy Policy; or (iii) bring legal action against someone who may be causing intentional or unintentional injury or interference to the rights or property of Galaxy Vets or any third party, including other users of our Services. 

How Long Does Galaxy Vets Retain Personal Data?

Galaxy Vets retains your Personal Data only as long as necessary and as required for our business operations, the provision of Services, archival purposes, and/or to satisfy legal requirements. The exact period of retention will depend on: (i) the amount, nature, and sensitivity of the Personal Data; (ii) the personal risk of harm for unauthorized use or disclosure; (iii) the purposes for which we process your Personal Data, including whether those purposes can be achieved through other means; and (iv) business operations and legal requirements. Specifically, Galaxy Vets strives to retain pet health data for no longer than 7 years after last contact with your pet (the “Retention Period”); however, the above factors may extend or decrease this Retention Period. 

At the end of the applicable Retention Period, we will remove your Personal Data from our databases and will require that our Business Partners remove any identifiable Personal Data from their databases. If there is any data that we are unable to delete entirely from our systems for technical reasons, we will put in place appropriate measures to prevent any further processing of such data. Please note that once we disclose your Personal Data to third parties, we may not be able to access that Personal Data and we cannot force the deletion or modification of such information by third parties.

Galaxy Vets and its Business Partners reserve the right to continue using de-identified data indefinitely, even after Personal Data has been removed from Galaxy Vets’ databases. We may continue to disclose de-identified data to third parties in a manner that does not reveal personal information, as described in this Privacy Policy. Our continued use of de-identified data will comport with applicable law. 

What Happens to Personal Data Submitted by Minors?

Galaxy Vets does not knowingly collect Personal Data from individuals under the age of 18. Additionally, our Services are not directed to individuals under the age of 18. We request that these individuals not provide Personal Data to us. If we learn that Personal Data from users under the age of 18 has been collected, we will take reasonable measures to promptly delete such data from our records.

Your rights

What Rights Do You Have Concerning Your Personal Data?

As a user of the Website and/or Services, you have certain rights relating to your Personal Data, including pet health data. These rights are subject to local pet medical record confidentiality rules, and data protection and privacy laws, and may include the right to:

• Access Personal Data, including pet health data, held by Galaxy Vets; 
• Erase/delete your Personal Data, to the extent permitted by applicable pet medical record confidentiality, data protection, and privacy laws and to the extent technologically feasible; 
• Receive communications related to the processing of your Personal Data, including pet health data; 
• Restrict the processing of your Personal Data to the extent permitted by law; 
• Object to the further processing of your Personal Data, including the right to object to marketing; 
• Request that your Personal Data and/or pet health data be transferred to a third party, if possible; 
• Receive your Personal Data, including pet health data, in a structured, commonly used, and machine-readable format; and/or
• Rectify inaccurate personal information and, taking into account the purpose of processing the Personal Data, ensure it is complete. 

Where the processing of your Personal Data by Galaxy Vets is based on consent, you have the right to withdraw that consent at any time. If you would like to withdraw your consent or exercise any of the above rights, please contact us at [email protected]. 

You have the right to request restrictions on uses and disclosures of your Personal Data. While we are not required to agree to all restriction requests, we will attempt to accommodate reasonable requests when appropriate. In order to comply with certain requests to limit use of your Personal Data, we may need to terminate your ability to access and/or use some or all of the Services. BY REQUESTING TO LIMIT USE OF YOUR PERSONAL DATA OR DELETE PERSONAL DATA, YOU ACKNOWLEDGE AND AGREE THAT GALAXY VETS WILL NOT BE LIABLE TO YOU FOR ANY CORRESPONDING LIMITATION IN THE SCOPE OF SERVICES OR TERMINATION OF SERVICES AS NECESSARY TO COMPLY WITH YOUR REQUEST. 

You further understand that it may not be technologically possible to remove all of your Personal Data from our systems. While we will use reasonable efforts to remove your Personal Data, the need to back up our systems to protect information from inadvertent loss means a copy of your Personal Data may exist in a non-erasable form that will be difficult or impossible for us to locate or remove. 

Protection of personal data

Is Personal Data Secure?

Galaxy Vets understands the importance of data confidentiality and security. We use a combination of reasonable physical, technical, and administrative security controls to: (i) maintain the security and integrity of your Personal Data; (ii) protect against any threats or hazards to the security or integrity of your Personal Data; and (iii) protect against unauthorized access to or use of such information in our possession or control that could result in substantial harm to you or your pet. 

While Galaxy Vets uses reasonable security controls, WE CANNOT GUARANTEE OR WARRANT THAT SUCH TECHNIQUES WILL PREVENT UNAUTHORIZED ACCESS TO YOUR PERSONAL DATA. GALAXY VETS IS UNABLE TO GUARANTEE THE SECURITY OR INTEGRITY OF PERSONAL DATA TRANSMITTED OVER THE INTERNET, AND THERE IS NO GUARANTEE THAT YOUR PERSONAL DATA WILL NOT BE ACCESSED, DISCLOSED, ALTERED, OR DESTROYED BY BREACH OF ANY OF OUR PHYSICAL, TECHNICAL, OR ADMINISTRATIVE SAFEGUARDS. ACCORDINGLY, WE DO NOT AND CANNOT ENSURE OR WARRANT THE SECURITY OR INTEGRITY OF ANY PERSONAL DATA YOU TRANSMIT TO US. YOU ASSUME THE RISK THAT UNAUTHORIZED ENTRY OR USE, HARDWARE OR SOFTWARE FAILURE, AND OTHER FACTORS MAY COMPROMISE THE SECURITY OF YOUR PERSONAL DATA AT ANY TIME. 

What Safeguards Does Galaxy Vets Have in Place to Secure Personal Data and/or Pet Health Data?

Galaxy Vets stores Personal Data on secured servers and uses a combination of technical, administrative, and physical safeguards to protect your personal information. Such safeguards include, but are not limited to, authentication, encryption, backups, and access controls. 

What If Galaxy Vets Experiences a Data or Security Breach?

Galaxy Vets takes the security of your Personal Data seriously. In the event of a data or security breach, Galaxy Vets will take the following actions: (i) promptly investigate the security incident, validate the root cause, and, where applicable, remediate any vulnerabilities within Galaxy Vets’ control which may have given rise to the security incident; (ii) comply with laws and regulations directly applicable to Galaxy Vets in connection with such security incident; (iii) as applicable, cooperate with any affected Galaxy Vets user or client in accordance with the terms of Galaxy Vets’ contract with such user or client; and (iv) document and record actions taken by Galaxy Vets in connection with the security incident and conduct a post-incident review of the circumstances related to the incident and actions/recommendations taken to prevent similar security incidents in the future. Galaxy Vets will notify you of any data or security breaches as required by and in accordance with applicable law. 

Advertising, marketing, and tracking

Does Galaxy Vets Send Marketing or Advertisement Materials?

Presently, Galaxy Vets does not send marketing or advertising materials. In the event that Galaxy Vets uses your Personal Data to contact you with newsletters, marketing, or promotional materials, or other information that may be of interest to you, you may opt out of receiving such messages at any time by following the unsubscribe link within the applicable message or by contacting us. 

Can You Opt Out of Receiving Communications from Galaxy Vets? 

When using the Website or receiving Services, you may have also opted in to receive email communications from us. When opted in to email communications, you have agreed to receive emails sent to your email address regarding our Services. These messages may include a response to an inquiry, real-time texts to ask and answer questions about our services, and appointment confirmations. You may opt out of email messages from Galaxy Vets by following the instructions in the email message. 

When using the Website or receiving Services, you may have also opted in to receive text communications from us. When opted in to text communications, you have agreed to receive text (SMS/MMS) sent to your mobile number. These messages may include a response to an inquiry, real-time texts to ask and answer questions about our services, and appointment confirmations. You may opt out of text messages from Galaxy Vets replying “STOP” to a text message you have received from us.

What Is Galaxy Vets’ Cookie Policy?

Cookies are small files that a web server sends to your computer or device when you visit a web application that uses cookies to keep track of your activity on that site. Cookies also exist within applications when a browser is needed to view or display certain content within the application. Cookies hold a small amount of data specific to a web application, which can later be used to help remember information you entered in the application (like your email or username), preferences selected, and movement within the application. We do not use cookies; however, we use third-party software development kits that do use cookies and other technologies to, among other things, better serve you with more tailored information, and to facilitate efficient and secure access to the Services. Specifically, we use Google Analytics for Firebase and Amplitude which collect data that may be considered Personal Data, such as User IDs, IP addresses, device-unique IDs, and device metadata. 

Do Not Track Disclosure

Some web browsers may transmit do not track (“DNT”) signals to websites with which the user communicates. To date, there is no industry standard for DNT and users cannot know how a given company responds to a DNT signal they receive from browsers. Galaxy Vets is committed to remaining apprised of DNT standards. However, Galaxy Vets does not support DNT browser settings and does not currently participate in any DNT frameworks that would allow Galaxy Vets to respond to signals or other mechanisms regarding the collection of your personal information. 

California privacy rights

If you are a California resident, the California Consumer Privacy Act (“CCPA”) may apply to you. Please see the CCPA Attachment for an explanation of your rights. 

Under California Civil Code sections 1798.83-1798.84, California residents are entitled to ask for and obtain from us an annual list identifying the categories of personal customer information which we shared, if any, with our affiliates and/or third parties in the preceding calendar year for marketing purposes. This list will be provided free of charge. Contact information for such affiliates and/or third parties must be included. If you are a California resident and would like a copy of this notice, please submit a written request to the following address: 

Galaxy Vets Healthcare System, Inc. 
221 W. 9^th Street, Suite 504
Wilmington, Delaware 19801-1619
Attn: Privacy Officer
[email protected]