Cookie Policy

Cottage Veterinary Clinic  (collectively “Cottage Veterinary Clinic” “us” and “we”) and third parties we partner with use cookies and similar technologies on Cottage Veterinary Clinic website(s) (including mobile sites) and social media sites (“Sites”), mobile applications (Apps) (collectively “Online Services”) to give users (“you” or “your”) the best possible browsing experience.

This Cookies Statement explains:

• what cookies are,
• how we use cookies and similar technologies,
• how third parties we partner with may use cookies and similar technologies, and
• your choices regarding acceptance of cookies and similar technologies.

By creating or logging in to an online account with us or using our Online Services you agree to the use of cookies and similar technologies on our Online Services for the purposes we describe in this Cookies Statement.

A cookie is a small text file, placed on your PC, tablet or mobile phone (collectively “devices” and individually “a device”) when you visit an online service. Cookies send information back to the originating online service or another online service that recognises that cookie.

Cookies can be either permanent (persistent cookies) and remain on your device until you delete or clear them, or temporary (session cookies) where they stay until you close your browser.

Cookies can also be either first party cookies which are set by the online service you are visiting, or third party cookies which are set by an online service other than the online service you are visiting.

Cookies help us to do things such as:

• identify your device when you use our Online Services;
• identify which browser you use;
• identify which specific pages you view and the time and date you visited our Online Services;
• remember you when you return;
• provide you with a faster, better, and safer browsing experience;
• keep track of your preferences;
• provide you with a more personalised experience; and
• measure and analyse traffic patterns and user behaviour on our Online Services.

We use different types of cookies for different purposes including the following:

Your Preferences and Settings – to help us remember your preferences including your preferred language, browser settings and communication and opt-out preferences, so that they do not have to be reset each time you return to our Online Services.

Performance – to assess the performance of our Online Services, and to improve the features, functions, content and design of our Online Services.

Analytics and Research – to collect usage and performance data in relation to our Online Services. For example, we may use cookies to count the number of unique visitors to pages on our Sites, what content was viewed and what links were clicked on, to log users’ IP addresses in order to analyse trends and to compile other statistics about use of our Online Services and user behaviour. These cookies include our cookies and third party cookies.

Security – to enable and support our security features, to keep your account safe and to help us combat fraud and any activity on our Online Services which violates our policies or applicable law.

Cottage Veterinary Clinic and third parties we partner with use the following cookies:

Strictly necessary cookies

These cookies are essential for the technical operation of and proper functioning of our Online Services, and enable you to register and login, to easily move around our Online Services, and to access secure areas. Without these cookies our Online Services won’t function properly.

Performance cookies

Performance cookies allow us to collect aggregated and anonymous data on how our Online Services are used, such as the number of visitors to our Online Services, how you navigate around and the time spent on our Online Services and also to identify any errors in functionality. These cookies also help us to improve the way our Online Services work by ensuring that you can find what you’re looking for easily, to better understand what you are interested in and to measure the effectiveness of the content of our Online Services. These cookies may be either permanent or temporary cookies, or first-party or third-party cookies.

Functional cookies

These cookies help us to improve and personalise your browsing experience by storing your preferences and providing enhanced functionality.

Third Party Cookies and Similar Technologies

Our Online Services display content and social media features from third parties such as Facebook’s “Like” button, Twitter’s “Follow” button and LinkedIn’s “Share” button on our Online Services. When you visit web pages containing third party content, cookies used by those third parties may track your use of our Online Services and collect information such as your IP address and which pages you visit.

Third parties may also use similar technologies to cookies, such as web beacons (clear GIFs embedded on web pages), local shared objects (also known as flash cookies i.e. messages used in Adobe Flash) that are sent from a web server to a web browser and are then stored as a data file in a browser) to help us to deliver personalised content to you on our Online Services.

Third party cookies and similar technologies use browsing information collected to do things such as:

• count the number of visitors to our Online Services;
• identify the web pages you view and the links you click on and other actions you take on those web pages; and
• identify the online service from which you came before arriving at a particular web page.

We also use third party analytics tools such as Google Analytics which use cookies and similar technologies to collect data about your online activities, in order to analyse your behaviour on our Online Services and activities and trends. This data helps us compile aggregated statistics about the effectiveness of our marketing campaigns or other operations. Please be aware that we do not control the use of third party cookies and similar technologies.

If you don’t want to receive cookies, or want to adjust your cookies preferences, most browsers allow you to change your browser settings to block or delete cookies. Your internet browser’s “help” function will tell you how to do this.

You should be aware that if you block or delete cookies, our Online Services may not work properly and you may not be able to access certain areas.

We may update this Cookies Statement at any time. If we do, we will update the “last modified” section at the bottom of this Cookies Statement.

We encourage you to regularly review this Cookies Statement to stay informed about our use of cookies.

If you have any queries regarding this Cookies Statement, please contact us.

You can reach us at:

Dr Morné de Wet
Cottage Veterinary Clinic Group Information Officer
Cottage Veterinary Clinic
1 Riverside Avenue, Gordon’s Bay, 7140
Telephone number (021) 856 2746
Email: pa@cottagevet.co.za

Last modified: 28 June 2021