This page explains what I collect when you contact me or work with me, why I need it, who helps me look after it and how long I keep it. If anything is unclear, please ask me.
Who I am
I am Caroline Clark, a Qualified Clinical Animal Behaviourist trading as Pet Education and Training. I am a sole trader, not a limited company. Under UK data protection law (the UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018) I am the ‘controller’ of your information.
- Email: carolineclark@peteducationandtraining.co.uk
- Post: 1 Coach House, Irton Manor, Moor Lane, Irton, North Yorkshire, YO12 4RW
- Registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) as Mrs Caroline Clark, trading as Pet Education and Training, reference ZA216083
I also run the Pet Education and Training courses website, which has its own privacy policy. The two sites share one diary (see ‘Who helps me’). I am responsible for your information on both, and for my work as an author.
What I collect and when
When you send an enquiry
The contact form asks what your enquiry is about, your name, email address and message. It is emailed to me. The website does not keep the form itself, but its email log keeps a copy of every email it sends, enquiries included, for 90 days. Reports of a website problem go to my web developer, who looks after the website for me.
When you start a package
I ask for your name and email address. This creates your client record, and I email you a personal link to your client area.
Your questionnaire
Before a video consultation I ask you to fill in a detailed questionnaire. It covers:
- your name, address, phone numbers and email address
- your pet’s details, history, diet, routine, health and any medication
- your vet practice, your vet’s name and whether your pet is insured and with whom
- who lives in your home (including how many children and roughly how old they are) and any other animals
- the problem in your own words, including any aggression or bites
- your goals, the time you can give, the days and times that suit you and how you heard about me
Your answers save as you go, both on my website and in your own browser (see ‘Cookies and browser storage’).
Photos, videos and documents
In your client area you can add photos, videos and PDFs. You can also paste a link to a video stored elsewhere (such as Loom, YouTube, Google Drive or WeTransfer), in which case I keep only the link.
Sessions, payments and my work for you
- For each session: the date, time, length and type, any moves or cancellations and the Zoom joining link. Video sessions are recorded on Zoom so that you can watch them again.
- For payments: whether you have paid, when, the amount and Stripe’s reference. Your card details go straight to Stripe. I never see or store them.
- Your behaviour plan, the referral I prepare for your vet, whether your vet has given permission and the emails between us.
Security records
When a file in your client area is opened, the website records which file, when, the IP address and the browser type. It also briefly counts failed or repeated link requests, using a scrambled form of the IP or email address, to stop people guessing links.
Like every website, the server my web host runs keeps short technical logs of visits (the IP address, the page asked for, the time and the browser type) to keep the website working and secure. My web host keeps them for a short time under its own policy, then deletes them.
Why I use it
The law asks me to tell you the legal reason (the ‘lawful basis’) for each use.
- Replying to your enquiry: my legitimate interest in answering people who contact me, or steps you have asked me to take before you book.
- Providing your consultation (your client record, questionnaire, uploads, sessions, recordings, plan, client area and the emails about them): it is needed for our contract.
- Taking payment: our contract. Keeping payment records: a legal obligation under tax law.
- Keeping the website and your client area secure: my legitimate interest in protecting your information.
- Using a recording to help train my student behaviour counsellors: only with your consent, given by its own tick in the questionnaire, which you can withdraw at any time.
- Showing your testimonial on the website: only with your consent.
I do not send newsletters or marketing from this website. I never add behaviour clients to my courses newsletter. I do not sell your information or make automated decisions about you.
You do not have to give me any of this information. But I need your contact details, your questionnaire and your vet’s permission to provide a consultation, so without them I cannot take your case.
Sensitive information
In your answers, your photos and videos or a session, you may mention your own health or the health of someone in your home. I use this only to understand your pet’s behaviour and to keep everyone safe. Please include it only where it helps, and do not share other people’s health details unless they are happy for you to.
I ask about children in the home because their safety around your pet matters. I only need to know roughly how old they are, not their names or exact ages.
If you tell me your dog has bitten someone or been out of control, I treat that with particular care. I may need to share it if someone is at serious risk of harm or if the law requires me to.
Your vet
I work only on veterinary referral. From your questionnaire I prepare a referral form for your vet to sign, with your name and address, your pet’s name, species and breed, a short note on the problem and your vet’s name, practice and address. I email it to you and you pass it to your vet. Your vet completes it and returns the signed referral form to me, sometimes with your pet’s medical history. After the consultation I email your vet my behavioural diagnosis and an overview of your behaviour plan.
If you are a vet named by a client, I hold your name and practice details only for the referral and to keep you informed about your patient. They are kept with the client’s file, and you have the same rights as anyone else on this page.
Who helps me
These services help me run my practice. They use your information only to provide their service to me, except where noted.
- Krystal, my web host in the UK, stores the website, its database and your uploads. It also sends the website’s emails through my mailbox. A data processing agreement with Krystal is in place.
- Cloudflare Turnstile checks that a real person, not a robot, is sending the Get started, Client login and Contact forms. It looks at technical details from your browser and device, such as your IP address, but not at what you type into the form.
- Stripe takes payments on its own secure page. It receives your email address, a client reference number, the package name and the amount. It also handles your card details, and it uses payment information for its own fraud checks and legal duties, for which Stripe itself is responsible. If you choose Klarna on Stripe’s page, Klarna receives your details and may carry out its own credit check under its own privacy policy. If you choose Pay by Bank, you approve the payment in your own banking app, and your bank shares only what is needed to make it.
- Zoom runs and records the video sessions. Meetings carry only a reference code, not your name or email address, but Zoom does handle the live call, anything said or shown on camera and the name you type in when you join. Zoom’s own transcripts and AI summaries are switched off.
- Vimeo’s own Zoom connection copies each recording from Zoom to Vimeo.
- Vimeo stores the recordings, unlisted (so they cannot be found by searching) and with downloads switched off. I show them to you only in your client area.
- My courses website holds my one shared diary so that I am never double-booked. It receives only a session reference, the time, length and type and a link to my own admin screen. It never receives your name, email address or pet’s name.
- My web developer, who looks after the website for me, can see what it holds when fixing a problem or keeping it up to date, and uses it for nothing else. A written agreement covers this.
If I cannot take your case and you agree, I may pass your details to a behaviourist colleague I trust. I will also share information if the law requires it (for example under a court order) or if someone is at serious risk of harm. Services you choose yourself, such as one you use for a video link, have their own privacy policies.
Information sent outside the UK
Stripe, Zoom, Vimeo and Cloudflare are based in, or linked to, the United States, so your information may be processed there. Each transfer is protected by a recognised safeguard, such as the UK-US data bridge or the UK’s International Data Transfer Addendum, and I keep each provider’s agreement on file.
How long I keep things
- Enquiry emails: in my mailbox for 2 years, unless you become a client.
- A package you started but never paid for, with no questionnaire sent: deleted automatically 12 months after you started.
- Your client file (record, questionnaire, uploads, plan, referral and session details): kept for 6 years after I close your case, so that I can answer questions and deal with any claim. A questionnaire sent in for a package that never goes ahead is kept for the same time.
- Recordings: you can watch each one in your client area for 12 months. After that it is set to private on Vimeo, so only I can see it, and it is kept with your client file.
- Payment records: 6 years, as tax law requires.
- File access log: 12 months, then deleted automatically.
- Security counts: between 10 minutes and 1 hour.
- Server logs kept by my web host: a short time, under its own policy.
- Emails I send you: in my mailbox, and in the website’s email log for 90 days.
- Testimonials: until you ask me to take them down.
Keeping your information safe
Your client area has no password. It opens with the personal link I email you. On a new phone or computer, and again every 30 days, the website also emails you a 6-digit code to type in, so the link on its own opens nothing for anyone else. Please do not forward my emails. If you think someone else can get into your client area, tell me and I will replace your link straight away, which signs you out everywhere. If you lose your link, you can ask for it again at any time on the Client login page.
Your uploads are kept in a locked folder and can only be opened through your link, or by me and my website support when we are signed in. The website removes location details from JPEG, PNG and WebP photos where it can, but not from GIFs, videos or PDFs, so you may want to switch off location on your phone’s camera first. Private pages tell your browser not to keep a copy.
Cookies and browser storage
This website has no analytics, advertising, tracking pixels or social media buttons. Its fonts are stored on the site itself. That is why you see no cookie banner. This is everything it stores on your device:
- pet-theme (a cookie and a browser storage copy): remembers whether you chose light or dark mode. It is set only when you press the switch. The cookie lasts 1 year; the browser copy lasts until you clear it.
- Questionnaire answers (browser storage): a copy of your answers so that you can pick up where you left off. It is cleared from your device once you send the questionnaire.
- WordPress sign-in cookies: only for me and my website support when we sign in. Visitors and clients never get them.
- Vimeo player: in your client area only, to play your recordings. It loads with ‘do not track’ switched on, but Vimeo may set the cookies it needs to play the video.
- Stripe: sets its own cookies on its payment page, not on this website.
The pictures on the free e-book cards on the Books page load from my courses website, which sees your IP address as any website does.
Storage that is strictly necessary for something you ask for, or that only remembers how you like the website to look, does not need your consent, as long as I tell you about it and you can easily refuse it. The light or dark mode cookie is only set when you press the switch, to do what you asked.
You can block or delete cookies in your browser settings. The website will still work, but your light or dark choice will not be remembered.
Your rights
You have the right to:
- ask for a copy of the information I hold about you
- ask me to correct anything wrong or incomplete
- ask me to delete your information
- ask me to limit how I use it or object to my using it
- ask for the information you gave me in a format you can take elsewhere
- withdraw any consent you have given, at any time
Where I rely on my legitimate interests (replying to enquiries and keeping the website secure), you can object at any time. I will stop unless I have a strong reason to carry on, such as dealing with a legal claim.
You do not need an account. Just email me or write to me. To protect your file I will check that it is really you, by replying to the email address I have for you and waiting for you to confirm. There is normally no charge, and I will reply within one month.
Some things I must keep even if you ask me to delete them, such as payment records for tax and anything needed for a legal claim. When I delete your client file, the website removes your record, answers, uploads, plan and file access log, and I remove your session details, recordings and emails myself. Payment records stay for as long as tax law requires.
Complaints
If you are unhappy with how I have handled your information, please tell me first, by email or by post, so that I can put it right. I will let you know within 30 days that I have your complaint, look into it properly and tell you what I have found without undue delay. You can also complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office at ico.org.uk or on 0303 123 1113.
Other websites and changes
My book pages link to Amazon and other shops, and I may earn a commission from Amazon links. Those shops and other websites I link to have their own privacy policies, and nothing about you is passed to them unless you click through.
I will update this page when the way I work changes. The date at the top shows when it last changed. If a change affects you as a current client, I will email you.