Privacy Policy 

Welcome to the Sterling Group Website. Please read this Privacy Policy carefully.

Sterling Veterinary Group PTY Ltd (Sterling Group) (referred to in this policy as us, we or our) recognise that your privacy is very important. We respect your right to privacy and we are committed to safeguarding the privacy of our clients and website visitors in accordance with the Australian Privacy Act 1988.

Effective Date: 1st August 2024 

About this policy

This is a privacy policy about the personal information of individuals which is protected by the Australian and New Zealand law which applies to them, and how we manage it. It outlines the kinds of personal information we collect and hold, how we do so and the purposes for which we collect, hold, use and disclose personal information. This policy states how individuals may access personal information about them that is held by us and seek correction of it, how individuals may complain about a breach of relevant privacy laws or regulations and how we will deal with such complaints. This policy also states whether we are likely to disclose personal information to overseas recipients and, where practicable, specifies those recipients’ countries. 

We do business in Australia and New Zealand. Different policies and laws may apply to our personal information practices elsewhere.

Who are we?

We operate a number of specialist and emergency veterinary hospitals in Australia and New Zealand (a list of which can be found on our hospital directory page). Any reference to ‘we’ ‘our’ and ‘us’ is a reference to the activities and operations, in any or all of Australia and New Zealand.

Collection, holding and use of personal information 

We collect, hold and use the types of personal information outlines below. We do this doe the reasons and in the ways indicated. 

  • Clinic clients’ and other customers’ personal information. We collect personal information about individuals when they obtain veterinary services from us, or our other services or when they are referred to us (for example by other veterinarians). We do this in person, over the phone and via online communications, including out website and by email. This information includes names, addresses, age, phone numbers, email addresses, pet details, pet insurance information, credit card details, information we request so as to comply with professional standards and laws governing the conduct of veterinary practices and records of This information is used in connection with transactions with individuals. It may also be used for market research and to inform individuals (including prospective clients and customers) about our goods and services. When individuals telephone us, we may record the conversation with consent for quality review purposes,
  • Online Sites: We collect personal information when individuals communicate with us through our websites and other online sites, such as name, email address, phone number and details provided in the messages. 
  • Cookies: We allow cookies to be used to improve your experience with out website, to evaluate online site performance and to record your behaviour and activities when you visit our online sites for the purpose of analytics. We may access information from cookies set by others, such as social media service providers. Some third parties may set cookies on your device for the purpose of collecting your personal information for their purposes, which may include information about your interactions with our online site. You can generally limit which online sites and which of your devices allow cookies to be used. You can do this by changing the settings on your devices (for example your browser settings) and you may also be able toi change your third-part account settings. For example, any Facebook account you have allows adjustable settings to limit tailored marketing. There is a lot of publicly available information about cookies. Examples are ‘Targeted online marketing’ published by the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (see https://www.oaic.gov.au/privacy/your-privacy-rights/social-media-and-online-privacy/targeted-online-marketing ) and information at https://allaboutcookies.org/
  • CCTV: We record CCTV footage of public areas at our veterinary hospitals and other premises where our services are offered. We do this for safety and security.
  • Correspondence and Complaints: This information may include name, address, phone number and any complaint details and is used for responding to correspondence and complaint handling.
  • Recruitment and employment personal information: This is about job applicants for the purpose of assessing their suitability for employment and about employees. This may include any information relevant for these purposes, such as employment history, references, education, training, qualifications, registrations and licenses required for employment salary, work eligibility, psychometric testing results, tax-related information, bank account details and emergency contacts. We generally collect this personal information directly from individuals or from recruitment service providers (for example LinkedIn or SEEK) or referees. If you are an individual who will be working under a visa issued by the relevant government authority, we will also collect and disclose information about you via the government authority or migration agency acting on your behalf. 

 

We may collect other personal information appropriate for purposes primarily related to carrying out our business purposes, such purposes being governance, management audits, risk management, compliance, staff training, product development and incident responses.

If you provide us with the personal information of other individuals (such as emergency contact, a referee, or a joint pet owner) for purpose connected with any of our uses and disclosures of personal information as referred to in this policy, we are relying on you first having obtained their consent to do so rather than our own separate communications. 

From time to tim, we acquire other businesses. Such transactions generally involve the disclosure of personal information from the vendor organisation to us, either as part of the due diligence process or as a result of the transfer of assets or company ownership. It may also be collected from our internet searches. In such cases, we collect the personal information already held by the newly acquired business. 

We generally hold personal information collected by us in our hospital groups own personal information systems and in our enterprise data warehouse. In addition, our personal information security measures involve:

  • where there is a selection of a cloud-based service provider to hold personal information on our behalf, including, as a selection criterion, an assessment of that provider’s security practices;
  • for personal information held within our hospital group’s systems, requiring data migration to our enterprise data warehouse; 
  • limiting personal information-access authorisations to appropriate levels of seniority and roles withing Sterling Group members; and 
  • including security issues as part of privacy training of all our Hospital Groups.
Disclosure of personal information

We disclose personal information: 

  • to our service providers for their service provision to us. Examples are payment processors, data entry service providers, marketing agencies, market researchers, mailing houses, network administrators, labour hire, virtual and online veterinary medicine consultation providers, and debt collectors – each of which may have their own privacy policies outlining how they handle personal information;
  • for advisory services, to professional advisors, such as solicitors and accountants; 
  • for governance and management purposed, to our related bodies corporate;
  • to authorised persons who may have been named when individuals are transacting with us;
  • to third parties within individuals’ reasonable expectations or where expressly permitted under applicable privacy law, for example, where it is with individuals’ consent or where we are legally required to do so, such as pursuant to a court order or warrant;
  • as appropriate in connection with the conduct of veterinary services, for example to pet insurers and under professional standard and laws governing the conduct of veterinary professionals.

 

It is our policy to consider the extend to which our service providers comply with privacy principles under applicable laws and to seek supporting contractual commitments from them.  

Marketing Communications 

We communicate details about our products and services to past, existing and potential hospital clients and other customers.

We also communicate information about our events, professional continuous learning, industry news and othe relevant business updates to General Practice veterinarians, veterinary nurses and their teams.

These communications are sent in various forms, including mail, SMS, email and social media. Individuals can opt-out of receiving direct marketing communications by lodging a request with our Privacy Officer or by using opt-out facilities provided in direct marketing communications. 

Access and correction

Individuals may request access to personal information we hold about them by sending a written request to our Privacy Officer. We may charge a fee for providing access if it requires a significant amount of time to locate the information or to collate or present it in an appropriate format. We may decline to provider access to personal information where doing so may have an unreasonable impact on the privacy of others or where we are not required by applicable privacy or other laws to give that access. 

Where personal information is out-of-date or incorrect, individuals may inform us of this and request that we correct it.  

Pseudonyms and anonymity

Individuals may, where it is practical to do so, choose not to identify themselves or provide personal information to their interactions with us. If you choose not to provide certain information about yourself, we may not be able to provide you with the products, service or information you require.

Overseas transfers

We are likely to disclose personal information outside Australia and New Zealand. Our reasons are generally:

  •  in connection with services from a provider who is located, or uses locations, outside on of those places, such as the Philippines;
  • for disclosure between ourselves and our other related bodies corporate. our main company locations are Australia and New Zealand;
  • when our business which collected your personal information is in a different country to your locastion and;
  • in connection with insurance arrangements, for example, public liability issues involving an overseas individual
Complaints

If you are not satisfied with how we handle your personal information, you can lodge a complaint with our Privacy Officer. Our policy is to aim for a response time within 14 days to discuss your concerns and outline options about how they may be resolved. Our policy is to aim for your complaint to be resolved in an appropriate manner with which you are satisfied. You may contact our Privacy Officer to enquire about the progress of your complaint at any time. 

If you are not happy with how we have resolved your complaint, you may lodge a complaint with the relevant government’s privacy regulator. Contact details for the privacy regulators of Australia and New Zealand are:

 

Australian Information Commissioner www.oaic.gov.au

Telephone +61 1300 363 992

New Zealand Privacy Commissioner www.privacy.org.nz

Telephone +64 0800 803 909

 

Other privacy terms

This privacy policy is in addition to some other provisions which may be relevant to our management of your personal information, depending on your dealings with us and on our particular business. Examples are terms of use of our websites and specific consents you may give us under terms relevant to your engagement with our business. 

Amendments to policy

We may amend this policy from time to time to ensure that it remains accurate in view of any alterations to our personal information handling practices due to new technologies and changes business circumstances. Any updated policy will be published on our website

Further Information

Our Privacy Officer’s contact details for correspondence about our management of personal information is:

Privacy Officer Sterling Group

45 Hayward Street, Stafford, QLD 4056, Australia

email: privacy@sterlingvetgroup.com