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Privacy Policy

Last updated: 1 July 2026

This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, and protect personal information when you use VetHound (https://vethound.co.uk) — a free UK vet price comparison and information website.

VetHound is operated by Triple Dimension Ltd (company number 12586636), whose registered office is at Unit 4b, The Skills Centre, Limberline Spur, Hilsea, Portsmouth, England, PO3 5LF. In this policy, “we”, “us” and “our” refer to the operator of VetHound. “You” means anyone who visits or uses the website.

We are the data controller for personal information described in this policy. If you have questions, contact us at partners@vethound.co.uk.

1. What VetHound does

Most visitors can browse vet listings, compare published prices, and read pet advice articles without creating an account. We do not require pet owners to sign up to use the comparison features.

Veterinary practices can sign in to claim a listing, submit pricing, and manage limited listing information through a practice dashboard. That flow involves the personal data described below.

2. Personal information we collect

2.1 Browsing the site (all visitors)

When you use VetHound, we and our hosting providers may automatically process:

  • Technical and usage data — such as IP address, browser type, device type, referring URL, pages viewed, and approximate timing of requests. This is typical server and security logging from our hosting infrastructure.
  • Postcode searches — if you search by postcode, the postcode may appear in your browser's address bar (for example /vets?postcode=SW1A1AA). To show nearby practices we resolve postcodes to map coordinates using postcodes.io — either on our servers or, on the vet directory, directly from your browser. For analytics we record only the outward part of a postcode (for example "SW1A"), not the full code. We do not use postcodes to build marketing profiles. Your browser may store resolved coordinates in session storage to avoid repeat lookups during the same visit.
  • Cookies and similar technologies — see section 8 below.

We do not ask pet owners for their name, email address, or pet details to use the public comparison features.

2.2 Practice accounts and claims

If you represent a veterinary practice and sign in or submit a claim, we process:

  • Account identifiers — email address and authentication data managed through Supabase Auth (including magic-link sign-in or password, where enabled).
  • Claim information — the practice you are claiming, optional notes you submit, claim status, and timestamps.
  • Dashboard submissions — prices, contact details, and other listing fields you choose to publish or update.
  • Administrative correspondence — emails between you and us about claims, RCVS accreditation, or listing corrections.
  • Practice product updates (optional) — if you opt in on the claim form or in your dashboard, we store your email address, opt-in time, the wording version you agreed to, and an unsubscribe token so you can leave the list without signing in.

2.3 Pet-owner calculator estimates

If you use a VetHound cost calculator and ask us to email your estimate, we store your email address, a snapshot of the estimate and the options you selected, when you consented to occasional VetHound updates, and an unsubscribe token. We use this to send your estimate and (with your consent) occasional product updates. We do not operate a pet-owner account system or process payments. We do not knowingly collect information from children under 13.

2.4 Practice and third-party business data

Public listings may include business information about veterinary practices (names, addresses, published fees, opening hours, Google aggregate ratings, ownership type, and RCVS accreditation status). This is generally business information, not personal data about you as a visitor. We do not store or display Google review text on VetHound; links to Google Maps are provided where available.

3. How we use personal information

We use personal information to:

  • provide and secure the website;
  • authenticate practice users and manage claimed listings;
  • review and approve practice claims;
  • respond to enquiries and listing correction requests;
  • maintain records of who may edit a practice listing;
  • detect abuse, fraud, or technical problems;
  • comply with legal obligations;
  • send occasional product updates to practices that have opted in (for example new dashboard features or listing tools);
  • send calculator estimate summaries and occasional VetHound updates to pet owners who have opted in via a cost calculator.

We do not use practice account data for unrelated marketing without your consent. Transactional emails about claims, sign-in, and your listing are separate and do not require this opt-in.

4. Lawful bases (UK GDPR)

We rely on the following lawful bases, depending on the activity:

  • Contract — to provide practice sign-in, claims, and dashboard features you request.
  • Legitimate interests — to run a price comparison service, keep the site secure, improve reliability, and handle listing disputes, balanced against your rights.
  • Legal obligation — where we must retain or disclose information to comply with law.
  • Consent — for optional practice product-update emails and for pet-owner calculator estimate emails that include occasional VetHound updates. You can withdraw consent anytime via the unsubscribe link in those emails (or, for practices, the email preferences toggle in your dashboard).

5. Who we share information with

We use service providers (“processors”) that handle data on our instructions:

  • Supabase — database hosting, authentication, and practice account data.
  • Resend (via Supabase Auth email configuration) — delivery of sign-in and account emails.
  • Hosting provider — serving the website and standard access logs (for example Vercel or equivalent, depending on deployment).
  • postcodes.io — postcode-to-coordinates lookups when you search by location (see section 2.1).
  • Adobe Fonts (Typekit) — web fonts loaded from Adobe's CDN when you visit the site. Adobe may process technical data such as your IP address under its own privacy policy.
  • Google — we use Google Places data on our servers to enrich public practice listings (for example aggregate ratings and opening hours). We do not embed Google Analytics or advertising tags on visitor pages. We may use Google Search Console as a site-owner tool to monitor search performance; that service does not set cookies on your browser when you browse VetHound.
  • Sanity — hosts editorial pet advice articles. Public article content is not linked to individual pet-owner accounts on VetHound.

We may also share information if required by law, to protect rights and safety, or in connection with a business restructure — always subject to applicable data protection law.

We do not sell your personal information.

6. International transfers

Some processors may store or process data outside the UK. Where that happens, we rely on appropriate safeguards such as UK adequacy regulations, standard contractual clauses, or equivalent protections offered by the provider.

7. How long we keep information

  • Practice marketing opt-in records — retained to demonstrate consent and honour unsubscribe requests, including after you leave the product-update list.
  • Practice accounts — retained while your account is active and for a reasonable period afterwards for audit, dispute, and legal purposes.
  • Claims records — retained to document who was approved to manage a listing.
  • Server logs — kept for a limited period typical of hosting providers, unless needed longer for security investigations.
  • Session storage — cleared when you close your browser tab or window.

We delete or anonymise data when it is no longer needed for the purposes above.

8. Cookies and similar technologies

We use PostHog (EU cloud) for privacy-oriented product analytics on the public site — for example page views, postcode searches (outward code only, such as "RG1", not your full postcode), and clicks on call or register buttons. PostHog runs in cookieless mode and does not use advertising or cross-site tracking cookies for this. We do not use session replay or heatmaps.

VetHound also uses a small number of cookies and browser storage mechanisms:

  • Authentication cookies — set by Supabase when a practice user signs in, to keep you logged in securely.
  • Practice auth redirect cookie — a short-lived cookie used during sign-in to return you to the claim or dashboard page you were using.
  • Session storage — may cache postcode coordinates locally in your browser to improve search performance (see section 2.1).

We do not use third-party advertising cookies on the public site. PostHog analytics is described above and does not rely on non-essential marketing cookies. If we add other visitor analytics or marketing tags in future, we will update this policy and, where required, ask for consent before non-essential cookies are set.

You can control cookies through your browser settings. Blocking authentication cookies will prevent practice sign-in from working correctly.

9. Your rights

Under UK data protection law, you may have the right to:

  • access a copy of your personal information;
  • ask us to correct inaccurate information;
  • ask us to delete information in certain circumstances;
  • restrict or object to certain processing;
  • data portability, where applicable;
  • withdraw consent where processing is based on consent;
  • lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) at ico.org.uk.

To exercise your rights, email partners@vethound.co.uk. We may need to verify your identity before responding.

10. Security

We use technical and organisational measures appropriate to the data we hold, including encrypted connections (HTTPS), access controls on practice accounts, and restricted admin access to claim approvals. No online service can guarantee absolute security.

11. Third-party websites

Practice listings may link to external websites (for example a practice's own site or Google Maps). We are not responsible for their privacy practices. Read their policies before providing personal information to them.

12. Changes to this policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. The “Last updated” date at the top of the page will change when we do. Material changes may also be highlighted on the website.

13. Contact

For legal, privacy, data-protection, listing corrections, or practice claim questions: partners@vethound.co.uk.

For general visitor enquiries, use the contact address shown in the site footer.

See also Privacy Policy, Terms of Use, and Price corrections.