Privacy Policy

Home Euthanasia Veterinary Services respects your privacy. This policy explains what personal information we collect through this website, how we use it, who we share it with, and the choices you have. It is written plainly, because the people reading it are often reading it at a hard time.

We are a mobile veterinary practice based in Abbotsford, British Columbia. We visit families in their own homes across Abbotsford and the surrounding Fraser Valley communities we serve. We have no premises open to the public, no reception and no waiting room, and that shapes several parts of this policy.

We handle personal information in accordance with the Personal Information Protection Act (PIPA), SBC 2003 c.63, which is the statute that governs private sector organizations in British Columbia. Where personal information is handled outside the province, the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) may also apply, and Section 6 explains when that arises.

The individual accountable for our compliance with PIPA, and the person to contact about anything in this policy, is our Privacy Officer, Home Euthanasia Veterinary Services. Contact: hevs2025@gmail.com.

This policy covers information collected through our website and through the messages you send us. It does not cover the clinical records we are required to keep for animals we have attended, which are governed separately by British Columbia veterinary record-keeping requirements.

2.1 Information You Provide Directly

Almost everything we hold about you is something you chose to tell us. We collect information you give us through the contact form on this website, by email, and by text message. Depending on what you send, this can include your name, your email address, your mobile number, the community you live in, your pet's name, age and history, what has been happening with your pet, timing that matters to your family, and anything else you write in a message.

We ask only for what we need in order to reply to you and to arrange a visit. You do not have to give us any of it, but there is very little we can do without a way to reach you.

Please send only what you are comfortable sending. Email and text are ordinary consumer channels and are not encrypted end to end. If there is something you would rather say in person, you can wait and say it at the visit.

2.2 Information Collected Automatically

Our website does not use analytics, statistics tools, advertising tags or tracking pixels. We do not measure how you move around the site, we do not build a profile of you, and we do not pass your browsing activity to anyone.

What is collected automatically is limited to the ordinary technical records our hosting provider keeps in order to serve and protect the website. These logs can include an IP address, browser type, device type, the page requested and the time of the request. They exist for reliability and protection against abuse, not for marketing, and we do not use them to identify individual visitors.

If we ever add website analytics or advertising technologies, we will update this policy and put a consent banner in place before they are switched on.

2.3 Communication Platforms

Our number, (778) 683-0770, receives text messages only. We do not take voice calls on it. When you text or email us, the systems that carry those messages hold the ordinary record of that contact: your number or email address, the date and time, and the content of what you sent. Section 7 explains what is and is not done automatically with those messages.

2.4 The Quality of Life Check

The Quality of Life Check on this website collects nothing at all. It runs entirely in your own browser. Your answers are never sent to us, never sent to anyone else, never stored, and never written to any log. Nothing you move a slider to leaves your device, and closing the page is enough to be rid of it.

The result is not held back until you give us an email address or a phone number. There is nothing to enter and nothing to hand over. You can use the tool, read what it says, and go, and we will not know you were there.

We say this in detail because the tool asks you to think about something very personal and you are entitled to know exactly where those answers go, which is nowhere. If we ever change how the tool works, we will change this section first.

We use the information we collect to:

• Reply to your message and answer your questions
• Talk through your pet's situation with you before you decide anything
• Arrange, confirm and prepare for a home visit
• Provide veterinary care to your pet and communicate with you about it
• Arrange aftercare where you have asked us to
• Follow up with you after a visit
• Take payment and keep billing records
• Send you practice news, where you have agreed to receive it
• Keep the clinical and business records we are required by law to keep

We collect, use and disclose personal information only for purposes that a reasonable person would consider appropriate in the circumstances, and we do so with your consent except where the applicable privacy legislation permits or requires otherwise.

We do not sell your personal information. We do not trade it, rent it, or hand it to anyone for their own marketing. Section 10 sets out the only circumstances in which it is shared at all.

Text message is our main channel. Our number receives text messages and does not take voice calls, so if you write to us by text you will be answered by text. Commercial electronic messages we send are governed by Canada's Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL).

Text messages fall into two groups and the consent that applies is different for each. Service messages relate directly to your pet and your visit: replying to your enquiry, confirming a date and time, letting you know we are on the way, and following up afterward. Where you have given us your mobile number in the course of arranging care, we rely on your implied consent to send these. Marketing messages contain practice news, and we send those only where you have given express consent, which you give by opting in and which we record.

Every marketing message we send identifies us, gives our contact details and carries an unsubscribe mechanism. You can withdraw your consent at any time by replying STOP to any message from us, by using the unsubscribe instruction in the message, or by emailing hevs2025@gmail.com. We action withdrawals promptly and within the period required by CASL.

Withdrawing consent to marketing messages does not stop service messages about a visit that is already arranged. You can ask us to stop those too, at any time, and we will.

Message and data rates may apply depending on your mobile plan, and message frequency varies. We do not control, and are not responsible for, delays or failures in delivery caused by your mobile carrier.

5.1 Types of Cookies

Our website uses one category of cookie only: essential cookies, required for the website to work, including page navigation and protection against abuse. These are always active and cannot be switched off, because without them the site does not function.

We do not set statistics cookies, we do not set marketing or advertising cookies, and we do not allow any third party to set cookies on our website for their own purposes. There is no remarketing, no retargeting and no advertising audience built from your visit here.

5.2 Cookie Consent

Because our website sets essential cookies only, there is nothing for you to consent to and no choices for you to make. You will not be asked to accept or decline anything, and no consent banner is shown, because there is no non-essential technology on the site to gate behind one.

If we later add analytics or advertising technologies, we will introduce a consent banner and update this section before those technologies are switched on, so that you have a real choice before anything non-essential is set.

5.3 Global Privacy Control and Universal Opt-Out Signals

Our website detects and honours the Global Privacy Control signal and other universal opt-out mechanisms transmitted by your browser or a browser extension. There is currently nothing on the site for such a signal to switch off, because we run no analytics and no advertising, but the signal is honoured rather than ignored, and it will continue to be honoured automatically if that ever changes.

We work with a small number of providers who handle information on our behalf. We describe them by the function they perform rather than by name, because providers change over time. These include:

• Website hosting and content management providers
• Email and text messaging providers
• Online form providers
• Payment processing providers
• Practice management and record-keeping systems
• Aftercare providers, where you have asked us to arrange aftercare

We do not use website analytics or measurement platforms, and we do not use advertising or social media platforms. Those categories are absent from the list above because they are absent from our practice, not because we have left them out.

These providers may access personal information only as needed to perform their function for us, and are required to protect it to a standard comparable to our own. We do not permit them to use it for their own independent purposes.

Some of these providers, or the servers they use, are located outside British Columbia and outside Canada, which means personal information may be stored or handled in another country and may be accessible to the courts and authorities of that country under its laws. Where information is handled outside the province in this way, PIPEDA may apply alongside PIPA. If you would like more information about how we handle information held outside the province, contact us using the details in Section 16.

We do not currently use AI-assisted tools of any kind. This practice is one veterinarian. Dr. Maan reads and answers messages personally, and there is no system standing between you and him.

We set this out in full anyway, sub-section by sub-section, so that you can see exactly what is not happening and so that you have something to hold us to if it ever changes. If we adopt any of the tools described below, we will update this policy before they go live.

7.1 No Clinical Decisions by Automated Tools

No automated or AI system assesses your pet, decides what care your pet receives, or makes any clinical judgement about your pet. Every clinical judgement is made by a veterinarian registered in British Columbia who has attended your animal in person.

This applies to the Quality of Life Check as well. That tool reflects your own answers back to you and nothing more. It does not examine your pet, it does not identify what is wrong, and it does not tell you what to do. It is described further in Section 2.4 and in our Disclaimer.

7.2 Call Recording

We do not record calls, because we do not take calls. Our number, (778) 683-0770, receives text messages only.

If we introduce a voice line in future, we will record a call only where you know it is happening and consent to it, as PIPA and, where it applies, PIPEDA require. You would be told at the start of the call that recording may take place, and continuing with the call would be how you give consent. If you did not wish to be recorded you could say so and we would either stop the recording or continue without it, and you would receive the same service either way. Nothing of the kind happens today.

7.3 Automated Communications

We do not send automated appointment reminders, we do not transcribe messages by machine, we do not sort incoming messages automatically, and we do not use software to draft replies. Every message you receive from this practice was written by Dr. Maan.

7.4 AI Interaction Disclosure

There is no chatbot on this website and no automated attendant on our number. If a message comes back to you, a person wrote it. You will never be talking to a machine here without being told so, and if we ever add such a tool it will identify itself as one.

7.5 Your Rights Regarding Automated Tools

You may ask to communicate with a person rather than an automated system, and you may ask us how any tool we use handles your personal information. Today the first of those needs no asking, because there is no alternative to a person. Contact us at hevs2025@gmail.com or by text at (778) 683-0770.

We maintain administrative, technical and physical safeguards designed to protect personal information against loss, misuse, unauthorized access and unauthorized disclosure. Access is limited to the veterinarian and to providers who need it in order to do their work.

Physical safeguards look different for a practice with no premises, so we describe them honestly rather than borrowing language from a clinic. There is no reception desk, no waiting room and no records room, so there is no counter where a name can be overheard and no filing cabinet in a public corridor. Records are held electronically on password-protected devices carried by the veterinarian, kept locked when not in use, and never left unattended in a vehicle. Any paper carried to a visit, such as a signed consent form, is kept out of sight in transit and is filed or destroyed the same day. Nothing about your pet is discussed in a household we are visiting other than with you.

No method of transmission over the internet and no method of electronic storage is completely secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security. Email and text in particular are ordinary consumer channels, which is why Section 2.1 asks you to send only what you are comfortable sending.

8.1 Data Breach Notification

If a security incident affects your personal information, we will notify you and the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner for British Columbia, and where PIPEDA applies the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada, as required by applicable law.

As a resident of British Columbia, you have rights under the Personal Information Protection Act (PIPA), SBC 2003 c.63. Where your personal information is handled outside the province, PIPEDA may also apply. Your rights include:

• The right to access the personal information we hold about you, and to be told how it has been used and to whom it has been disclosed
• The right to request correction of personal information that is inaccurate or incomplete
• The right to withdraw your consent to our collection, use or disclosure of your personal information, subject to legal and record-keeping requirements and on reasonable notice
• The right to ask questions about how we handle your information and to receive an answer
• The right to complain to us, and to escalate a complaint to the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner for British Columbia

To exercise any of these rights, contact our Privacy Officer at hevs2025@gmail.com. We may need to verify your identity before acting on a request. We will respond within the timeframe required by the applicable statute.

Withdrawing consent may mean we can no longer provide part of a service, and we will tell you if that is the case before the withdrawal takes effect. You may also authorize another person to make a request on your behalf.

We do not sell personal information and we do not disclose it for anyone else's marketing.

We share personal information only in these circumstances: with the categories of provider described in Section 6, so that they can perform their function for us; where you have asked us to, for example when you ask us to arrange aftercare or when we send records to your regular veterinarian; and where sharing is required or permitted by law, by a court order, or by a regulatory authority, including the College of Veterinarians of British Columbia in the exercise of its regulatory function.

There is no advertising or analytics sharing to disclose, because we do no advertising and run no analytics. All of the above is done in accordance with the Personal Information Protection Act (PIPA), SBC 2003 c.63, and, where information is handled outside the province, PIPEDA.

Our website is intended for adults. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13 years of age. If you believe a child under 13 has provided us with personal information, contact us at hevs2025@gmail.com and we will delete it.

Our website contains links to third-party websites, including pet health resources, government pages and grief support resources. We provide these for convenience. We do not control those websites and are not responsible for their content or their privacy practices. Review the privacy policy of any website you visit through a link from ours.

Where we operate a social media profile, that profile is hosted by the platform rather than by us. Anything you post or send through a social media platform is governed by that platform's own privacy policy and terms, not by this one, and we have no control over how the platform collects or uses your information.

We keep personal information for as long as needed for the purpose it was collected, and for as long as we are required to keep it under applicable law, including British Columbia veterinary record-keeping requirements and tax and accounting rules. Clinical records are kept for the period the College of Veterinarians of British Columbia requires, which is longer than we would otherwise keep them.

Where we have used personal information to make a decision that directly affects you, we retain it for at least the minimum period required by the applicable privacy legislation so that you have a reasonable opportunity to access it. Enquiries that do not lead to a visit are kept only as long as they are useful and are then deleted. When information is no longer needed, we delete it or render it anonymous.

We may update this policy from time to time. The effective date at the top of this page shows when it was last revised. Where a change is significant, we will make that clear on the website. Continuing to use our website after a change takes effect means you accept the updated policy.

This website is designed and managed by VSA Vet Media Inc. on behalf of Home Euthanasia Veterinary Services. In providing those services, VSA Vet Media Inc. may handle personal information submitted through the website, including contact form submissions, and does so only on our instructions and for the purposes described in this policy. VSA Vet Media Inc. is not a veterinary practice and does not provide veterinary advice.

For any question about this policy, to exercise a privacy right, or to make a complaint about how we have handled your personal information, contact:

Privacy Officer, Home Euthanasia Veterinary Services. Contact: hevs2025@gmail.com.

Home Euthanasia Veterinary Services, Abbotsford, British Columbia. Email: hevs2025@gmail.com. Text: (778) 683-0770 (text messages only, we do not take voice calls).

We are a mobile practice and visit families in their own homes, so we publish no street address and there is no location to attend in person. Email reaches us reliably and is the best way to raise anything in this policy.

If you are not satisfied with our response, you may contact the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner for British Columbia.