My Privacy Policy
Related to the provision of products, e.g. electronic courses/presentations, and other electronic resources)
This policy sets out how I, Sara Davies, use your information. This policy covers all personal information collected. It applies to you if you interact with me, for example – if you purchase and/or access any of my products (e.g. my online courses/presentations or other electronic resources), visit any of my websites, or contact me (e.g. by written letter, telephone, email, electronic messaging, or other form of telecommunication). I only knowingly collect information from those over 18 years of age.
If you have any questions relating to this policy or how I use your personal information, please contact me, Sara Davies, by email: [email protected]
My privacy policy may change from time to time. Last updated 15th July 2025.
Please note that if you follow a link from my website(s), or are redirected to a third-party website, this privacy policy no longer applies, and you should check the privacy policy of that site.
What information of yours do I collect and/or use, and why?
I collect and/or use information to provide and/or inform you about my products. The information I collect from you might include:
- Contact details e.g. your name, postal address, email address, and telephone numbers
- Publicly available information, e.g. from websites, or social media
- Information relating to membership programmes
- Responses you have provided to surveys and research
- Professional information, e.g. job title, organisation, practice, employer
- Account information, including registration details (for accessing online courses/presentations and other electronic resources)
- Purchase/account history
- Financial transaction information
- Information relating to compliments, including testimonials and online reviews
- Information relating to complaints
- Device-specific information, such as your operating system version and device type to enhance your online experience
- IP address, username, and other network activity data
- Website user information, including user journeys and cookie tracking
I do not collect sensitive information unless there is a clear reason for doing so: For example, I might collect:
- Information to enable me to recognise and respond to the needs of a vulnerable person, or a person with a disability, or health condition. For example, this may enable me to alter how I communicate with you
Payment-specific information:
All payments are electronic and conducted by my payment processing partner, ‘Thinkific Payments’, at ‘Thinkific’ (the learning management system I use to provide courses/presentations and other electronic resources). They provide an SSL certificate to keep all our information (yours and mine) secure, and follow other industry standard best practices (e.g. those of PCI-DSS).
When is your information collected?
There are various occasions when it might be collected. For example, if you:
- Contact me regarding one of my products, whether by written letter, telephone, email, electronic messaging, or other form of telecommunication
- Set up an account on my website to purchase and/or access courses/presentations and/or other electronic resources
- Use one of my products, e.g. purchase and/or view an online course/presentation and/or other electronic resource
- Sign up for email notifications of services and/or products, e.g. by filling in a form on my website
- Visit any of my websites
My legal basis for collecting your information
The legal bases for collecting and using your information are:
- Consent - you have provided your consent to allow me to use your personal information in a certain way. For example, to provide access to an online course/presentation, and/or to send you email notifications of services and/or products
- Contract - in order to honour a contract with you. For example, to provide access to an online course/presentation or other electronic resource you wish to purchase and/or access
- Legal obligation - to comply with legal and/or regulatory obligations, such as to the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons
- Legitimate interest - I need to publicise the services and/or products I have available to meet my goal of improving animal welfare and to earn a living. I must comply with regulatory and legal obligations related to me being a veterinary behaviourist, and also participate in fraud prevention. I need to maintain the information security of my IT system, and manage financial transactions and, on rare occasions, use a debt collection service.
How long I keep your information?
In order to provide and/or inform you about my products, and for legal reasons, I keep your information for differing periods of time:
- Invoices and payment records - kept for seven years, for accounting, tax, and legal purposes
- Communications - e.g. emails, letters - kept for 10 years, for legal reasons
- Marketing consent - kept until consent is withdrawn
- Anything else - up to 10 years
I have standard web security measures to maintain the safety and security of your information, but I cannot be held responsible for any breaches of security.
If you contact me electronically, and/or purchase and/or use one of my products (e.g. online courses/presentations or other electronic resources), I recommend that if you share your devices with others you should close your browser window and/or switch off your device when you have finished your session. This will help to ensure that others cannot access your personal information.
Information is securely disposed of once its retention period expires, to protect privacy and confidentiality.
Banking and payment details - please see the above section titled ‘payment-specific information’.
Who I share information with
- Relevant regulatory authorities, e.g. the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons
- Professional or legal advisors
- Financial or fraud investigation authorities
- Organisations I am legally obliged to share information with
- Organisations I need to share information with for safeguarding reasons
- Organisations I need to share information with for crime prevention/reporting, public health and/or safety reasons, and/or animal welfare reasons
- Emergency services
- Debt collection agencies
Information shared outside of the UK:
Where necessary I may transfer information outside of the UK. When doing so I comply with all the UK GDPR, making sure appropriate safeguards are in place.
Your rights regarding the protection of your information
Under UK GDPR you have rights regarding your information, including:
- Right of access - you have the right to ask me for copies of your personal information
- Right to rectification - you have the right to ask me to rectify personal information you think is inaccurate. You also have the right to ask me to complete information you think is incomplete
- Right to erasure - you have the right to ask me to erase your personal information in some circumstances
- Right to restriction of processing - you have the right to ask me to restrict the processing of your information in some circumstances
- Right to object to processing - you have the right to object to the processing of your information in some circumstances
- Right to portability - you have the right to ask that I transfer the personal information you gave me to another organisation, or to you, in certain circumstances
- Right to withdraw consent – where I have used ‘consent’ as a lawful basis to collect or use your information (e.g. by filling in a form on my website to sign up for email notifications of services and/or products), you have the right to withdraw that consent. You can withdraw your consent by emailing me at [email protected]
Your request must be in writing (email is acceptable), and my response will be within one month, by email, unless my own personal circumstances do not allow (e.g. I am on holiday, or in hospital), given that I work alone. Where there has been a delay due to my personal circumstances you will be notified of that as soon as I am able and receive a response to your concerns as soon as possible thereafter, normally within one month of notification of a delay in response.
How to complain
If you are concerned (e.g. about how I collect or use your personal information), in the first instance please email me at [email protected] . I will consider your complaint carefully and do what I can to offer a resolution. Normally this would be within one month, by email, unless my own personal circumstances do not allow (e.g. I am on holiday, or in hospital), given that I work alone. Where there has been a delay due to my personal circumstances you will be notified of that as soon as I am able and receive a response to your concerns as soon as possible thereafter, normally within one month of notification of a delay in response.
If you remain unhappy with my response you can complain to the ICO:
Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF
Telephone helpline: 0303 123 1113
Website: https://ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint
My Cookie Policy
For my website(s)
If you have any questions relating to this policy, please contact me, Sara Davies, by email: [email protected]
My cookie policy may change from time to time. Last updated 15th July 2025.
Please note that if you follow a link from my website(s), or are redirected to a third-party website, this cookie policy no longer applies, and you should check the cookie policy of that site.
What are cookies, and why do I use them?
Cookies are small files of letters and numbers downloaded and saved to your device when you visit a website, including mine. They store information about how you use the website, including tracking the pages you visit, remembering your place in certain types of content, remembering your language preference and log-in details. The information cookies store doesn’t usually directly identify you, just the device you are using. Cookies are used to make websites work better for visitors, and to provide information to the site owners about how it’s being used.
There are ‘session cookies’ which are temporary and only last for as long as you are on the website. When you close your web browser, they are erased. Then there are ‘persistent or permanent cookies’ which stay on your device until you manually delete them or until your browser deletes them based on the duration period specified in the persistent cookie file.
More information about cookies, including how to disable them, can be obtained from:
https://ico.org.uk/for-the-public/online/cookies/
Some cookies, if disabled, might affect how the website works:
- It might not work at all - these are the ‘strictly necessary cookies’ that allow the website to function. They are usually set in response to actions made by you, which allows my website(s) to remember information about you, which amounts to a request for services. Such as, setting your cookie and privacy preferences, or when logging in, filling in forms, or when accessing the payment processes in my learning management system (run by ‘Thinkific’). These cookies are anonymous, as they do not store any personally identifiable information.
- Its functionality may be impaired - these are the ‘functionality cookies’. They give you a more personalised experience, such as remembering your language preference, or your place in certain types of content, and enhance video playback. They are not ‘strictly necessary’ but some website features won’t work without them. Functional cookies are anonymous and are restricted to my website and do not track you across websites.
- Its future performance may be impaired - these are the ‘performance cookies’, also known as ‘analytic or tracking cookies’. These help me understand which pages of my websites are the most and least popular and how people move around the site, thus allowing me to improve the site in the future. These cookies are anonymous.
‘Targeting cookies’, also known as ‘advertising cookies’, are used by both Wix (who provide my main website) and Thinkific (who provide my learning management system for courses and other electronic resources), and third-party integrations, like Google Analytics 4 and Constant Contact. They track users' actions and are used to identify users across different websites. Targeting cookies collect user information and use it to build a profile of users' interests and then show personalised ads for that specific user. Targeting cookies help to attract customers with targeted ads. The information these cookies gather about you can be shared with other advertisers to measure the performance of their advertisements.
When you first visit my site(s), you will be able to ‘opt-in’ to all the above cookies, though if you don’t accept the ‘strictly necessary ones’, the website(s) may not work at all.
How to complain
If you are concerned about my cookie policy (e.g. about what cookies I use), in the first instance please email me at [email protected] . I will consider your complaint carefully and do what I can to offer a resolution. Normally this would be within one calendar month, by email, unless my own personal circumstances do not allow (e.g. I am on holiday, or in hospital), given that I work alone. Where there has been a delay due to my personal circumstances you will be notified of that as soon as I am able and receive a response to your concerns as soon as possible thereafter, normally within one calendar month of notification of a delay in response.
If you remain unhappy with my response, you can complain to the ICO:
Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF
Telephone helpline: 0303 123 1113