Privacy Policy

Effective date: August 11, 2026

Independent Vet (“Independent Vet,” “we,” “us,” or “our”) operates independentvet.com to help people find and learn about independently owned veterinary practices. This Privacy Policy explains what information we collect, how we use and share it, and the choices available to you.

For privacy questions or requests, contact info@independentvet.com.

Information We Collect

Information you provide

We may collect information that you choose to submit through the website or by email, including:

Your name, email address, relationship to a practice, and supporting notes or evidence when you verify a listing or report an issue.
Practice names, addresses, websites, coordinates, ownership information, and other details submitted through the Add a Practice form.
Owner and practice-manager names, business phone numbers, owner email addresses, social-media links, ownership certifications, and practice messages submitted when claiming a listing.
Communications you send to us and information needed to respond to or investigate them.

Please do not submit sensitive personal information, confidential patient information, or information that you are not authorized to provide.

Practice and professional information

We compile professional and business information about veterinary practices and their owners from public sources, practice websites, corporate and government records, community reports, and direct submissions. This may include professional names, roles, business contact information, ownership information, and sources used to support our editorial classifications.

Information collected automatically

When you visit the site, our hosting, security, analytics, map, and content-delivery providers may receive technical information such as your IP address, browser and device type, operating system, referring page, pages viewed, approximate location derived from your IP address, and request timestamps.

We use Google Analytics to understand aggregate site usage. Google Analytics may use cookies or similar technologies. You can learn how Google uses information from sites that use its services and use the Google Analytics opt-out browser add-on if you prefer.

The rotating cat image in the site sidebar uses session storage to avoid immediately repeating the same image. That preference normally expires when your browser session ends.

Location features

If you choose “My Location” on the map, your browser asks for permission to provide your approximate location. Independent Vet uses that location in your browser to center the map and calculate nearby distances; we do not intentionally store your precise device location on our servers. Map-tile providers may nevertheless receive requests corresponding to the area of the map you view.

How We Use Information

We use information to:

Operate, secure, maintain, and improve the website and map.
Review, verify, correct, claim, add, classify, or remove practice listings.
Contact submitters when clarification or verification is needed.
Display approved practice messages, professional information, and social links.
Respond to questions, privacy requests, and disputes.
Detect spam, fraud, abuse, automated extraction, and security incidents.
Understand aggregate website usage and performance.
Comply with legal obligations and protect our rights and the rights of others.

We do not sell or rent personal information. We do not use personal information for targeted advertising. We send promotional email only when a recipient has expressly agreed to receive it. Operational messages about a submission, claim, correction, or account are not promotional messages.

Information That May Become Public

Practice names, addresses, professional owner names, ownership status, business contact information, practice websites, approved social links, verification dates, and approved practice messages may appear publicly on the site. A claim form identifies the fields intended for public display. Private contact details supplied solely for verification, such as an owner email address, are not intentionally published unless they are already presented as public business contact information or you ask us to publish them.

We share information only as reasonably necessary for the purposes described above, including with:

Cloudflare, which provides hosting, network delivery, security, and serverless form-processing services.
Google, which provides Google Analytics and the Google Apps Script and Google Sheets services used to receive and review submissions.
OpenStreetMap and content-delivery providers, which supply map tiles, software libraries, fonts, and other site resources requested by your browser.
Professional advisers, service providers, or authorities when reasonably necessary to comply with law, investigate abuse, resolve disputes, or protect rights and safety.
A successor if the project or substantially all of its assets are reorganized, transferred, or acquired, subject to appropriate protections.

These providers process information under their own terms and privacy practices. We do not authorize them to use private submission information for their own targeted advertising.

Retention

We generally retain private submission and claim records, including contact details, for up to three years after the last interaction or final review action. We may retain them longer when reasonably necessary to investigate a dispute, document consent, prevent fraud or abuse, comply with law, or complete an ongoing ownership review.

We may retain non-personal listing information, public-source evidence, editorial decisions, and de-identified audit history for longer periods because ownership can change and historical provenance helps us maintain an accurate map. Analytics and security records are retained according to the settings and schedules of the applicable service providers.

When information is no longer reasonably needed, we may delete, aggregate, or de-identify it.

Your Choices and Requests

You may ask us to:

Tell you what personal information we maintain about you.
Correct inaccurate personal or professional information.
Delete private information you submitted, subject to legitimate retention needs.
Withdraw consent to promotional email.
Object to or ask questions about how we use your information.

Send requests to info@independentvet.com. We may need to verify your identity and authority before changing a practice listing or disclosing or deleting information. Depending on where you live, applicable law may provide additional rights and an appeal process.

Browser “Do Not Track” signals are not governed by a uniform standard, and the site does not currently respond differently to those signals. Because we do not sell personal information or use it for targeted advertising, opt-out preference signals do not change those practices.

Security

We use reasonable administrative and technical measures intended to protect information. No website, email system, or storage service can guarantee absolute security, so please avoid sending unnecessary confidential or sensitive information.

Children

The site is intended for a general audience and is not directed to children under 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you believe a child submitted personal information, contact us so we can review and delete it.

United States Operation and External Links

Independent Vet is currently directed primarily to users and veterinary practices in the United States. Information may be processed and stored in the United States. The site links to third-party websites whose privacy practices we do not control.

Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy as the site changes. We will post the revised policy here and update the effective date. Material changes may also be announced on the site or through another reasonable notice.

Contact

Questions, corrections, and privacy requests may be sent to info@independentvet.com.