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Protecting your privacy and how you may use the site

We reviewed this policy in light of the new General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)that came in to law in May 2018: As we run a site serving Veterinary Professionals and do not pass data to any other parties, very little needed to change. In November 2018 we combined our privacy policy with our T&Cs (below) to make them easier to access.

NB:Access to this site is restricted to Veterinary Professionals. We do not sell your personal data to any other party.

Use of cookies

We do not use cookies on this site unless you click the box saying "remember me" in which case you will have enabled a cookie that allows you to automatically access the site the next time you return without having to input your password and login id.

IP Tracking

We do track IP addresses for the sole purpose of ensuring your security whilst online; tracking IP addresses allows us to identify persistent spammers and by accessing our site you accept that we will track your IP address for this purpose.

Once you are registered you can update your own privacy settings to be more or less visible. To do this click your name at the top right of the screen, choose "User Settings" in the drop-down menu, then the tab saying "Privacy" on the page that appears.

For data protection purposes, please note that the user id of the person on this site acting as the data controller is identified by the username Yourhost. If you have any concerns about privacy then please contact us.

Terms and conditions...how you may use the Site

Vetpol ® “The Site”, is owned by Vetpol Ltd “The Company”, a company registered in Cardiff, United Kingdom.

Welcome to Vetpol. These terms of use will read as appearing rather formal. We apologise for this and ask you to understand that these rules are here for your protection as a User of the Site. Your access to and use of this Site is subject to the following terms and conditions plus the laws of England and Wales and all disputes will be resolved according to the laws of England and Wales.

By logging on to this site or accessing and using its content, you are certifying that you are a Veterinary Professional, you are a User and accept, without limitation or qualification, these Terms and Conditions and acknowledge that any other agreements have no effect.

Eligibility:This Site is for veterinary professionals

For the purposes of use of this site what the definition of a veterinary professional is rests solely with the directors of Vetpol Ltd, although the Company may occasionally consult you and other Users of the site to vote on acceptability criteria for inclusion in the Site.

We may allow access to some areas that will be clearly designated for students considering entry to one of the veterinary professions, involved in studying for a veterinary qualification, or for general access; if you are such an individual and cannot see a clearly designated area that relates specifically to your field of study, or is not clearly designated for general access, do not attempt to access any other areas.

In accessing the site you are agreeing to the terms and conditions,verifying that you are over the age of 13 and that where you are using parts of the site designated as for persons under the age of 18 that you have the consent of the parent, guardian, employer, educational institution or other person or organisation responsible for your care, education or personal development.

The responsibility for verifying the eligibility of individuals using those parts of the Site rests with the Moderator, Administrator or Gatekeeper of that Group (see below for definitions) and Vetpol Ltd reserves the right to apply additional security criteria to these loops in order to preserve the security of other users.

If you are not a veterinary professional yet you manage to log in to the site without prior written permission from one of the Directors of Vetpol Ltd you accept that despite not being a legitimate User of the Site and also that you have no right of access to the Site, by logging in you are accepting this agreement and remain bound by all of the conditions in this agreement; you also accept that Vetpol Ltd has the right to use the full force of the law against you, that any other individuals or organisations using the Site have the same rights to take legal action against you if they perceive that your actions in accessing parts of the Site which you were not eligible to enter have wronged them in any way, and that you will also be responsible for any losses or damages arising against any other party as a consequence of your unauthorised access to the site.

If you access the Site you agree to use a name by which you are commonly known in the profession in which you work, or is otherwise traceable via the professional register to which you subscribe; you are Certifying that you are who you say you are, and that any information concerning your profile or identity is accurate.

It is a fundamental principle of the Site that it puts the veterinary professionals using the Site in control of their personal data and allows them to share their data with others of their choice. Even though you accept responsibility for sharing your data on the site, in order to protect you and other users of the site Vetpol Ltd may take any efforts it deems fit to verify that you are who you claim you are, and either block or temporarily suspend your access to the site if for any reason your identity is in doubt; we apologise in advance for any offence this may cause and ask you to understand that this is for your protection as well as for the protection of others.

What the Site may be used for by Users

In principle we are open-minded about veterinary professionals asking us about any use of the site, provided that this use is within the law and does not impinge upon the rights of other users. Currently access to Vetpol is discounted to zero for eligible veterinary professionals in order that it may remain inclusive rather than exclusive and therefore that the information collected may be more meaningful; there are costs involved in providing both the Site and the services it runs and the Company intends to recover these costs through market research and sponsorship. Neither sponsorship, nor any form of advertising on any of the satellite sites or services, nor mention of a product, service, individual or organisation imply endorsement by Vetpol Ltd. Advertising on the main site will be avoided.

Advertising

Individual organisations are welcome to advertise their activities on lists that they host within the site under their own name, to use their own trademarks on these lists, and to publicise their activities on calendars or in areas specifically designated for this purpose.

Individual professionals are also welcome to use the lists to network provided that such posts are not so frequent as to compromise the experience of others using the Site; the final decision as to how frequent this should be rests with the Directors of Vetpol and will depend upon feedback received by the Directors. An acceptable form of self-promotion would be to include a web address, strap-line and/or address at the bottom of an e-mail in order that others may see what your business is and where to reach you if they wish to talk to you, or to include such details in your user profile. Should a post request a service that you or your business is able to provide then you are welcome to use the Site to send a private message to the individual requesting such advice on loops where private messages are enabled: If the response includes content likely to be of general interest to that loop, e.g. on a clinical matter, or concerning a general business issue, then you are welcome to post it to the loop that the request originated from.

Discussion on the site does not constitute advertising or promotion, and all Users accept this; nevertheless Users are urged to take care when discussing matters such as how to undertake procedures that may constitute Acts of Veterinary Surgery, or when discussing the use of prescription medicines either in species for which they are not licensed, or in a manner that is not specifically described in the data sheet or product literature: Such use can only be recommended by a fully-qualified, practising veterinary surgeon responsible for the care of the animal or animals in question. As such discussions will inevitably take place, any list designated MRCVS or veterinary surgeon (s) is for access by qualified veterinary surgeons only. Any list designated as for practising veterinary surgeons is for members listed in the RCVS register under the practising members section. It is accepted that some of the contentious areas in veterinary medicine or surgery concern areas that may ultimately be delegated to veterinary nurses or paraprofessionals and therefore some discussion concerning activities legally reserved for veterinary surgeons will take place on these lists; where you engage in such discussions, whilst all Users accept that these discussions do not constitute promotion, you agree that you will communicate in such a way that you do not inadvertently encourage others to undertake activities in which they may not legitimately engage.

With the permission of the Directors other organisations (referred to as Third Parties) may ask us to set them up to use their own lists, under their own names, brands or trademarks applying additional rules as they see fit. If other individuals or organisations wish to conduct their discussions in privacy without the Directors of Vetpol monitoring these discussions they are welcome to do so, subject to all the other terms in this agreement; in the event of disagreements that appear un-resolveable the directors of Vetpol Ltd have the final say.

Users of lists controlled by Third Parties are expected not to imply to others that any document or information circulated on these lists has the endorsement of the organisation controlling it, unless it has the official stamp of approval of that organisation (see Intellectual Property below) used with the explicit permission of that organisation.

Roles

We avoid the common term Webmaster. An Administrator is somebody who administrates a list for the benefit of a group; Moderators are expected to moderate the discussion on a particular list to the satisfaction of the group or organisation using that list. Super Moderators have additional responsibilities beyond moderation agreed on an individual basis with the Directors of Vetpol Ltd. The role of a Gatekeeper is somebody who controls access to a forum loop and/ or User Group on behalf of a Third Party using the site and this individual then takes all responsibility for activities on that loop or within that User Group; "Your host" is the person nominated by the Directors to maintain overall control of the Site and is the Data Controller. In the context of this agreement Administrators, Gatekeepers, Moderators and Super Moderators are also Users.

You agree to look after other members of the community: Users of the site will have preferences as to which forms of communication they do and do not wish to receive; should you use the site to contact others in the veterinary community you are expected to respect the preferences of other Users. Where a Third Party chooses to operate a list within Vetpol users of that list are also expected to abide by the rules of the rest of the site.

Use of the Site does not constitute employment by Vetpol Ltd or its directors and you accept this: Should users or organisations use the site for business purposes all responsibilities for declaring revenues derived from these activities and paying taxes on these activities remain the responsibility of the User or organisation carrying out these activities. Any activities carried out by users for commercial purposes within loops run by Third Parties remain the responsibility of the individual user and such use does not imply employment by this third party.

From time to time Vetpol Ltd will add new services or satellite sites to its main site which you are free to opt in or out of and will notify you of these new facilities. This agreement applies both to the main Vetpol site and to these satellite sites, collectively also referred to as part of “the Site”. If there are additional conditions for eligibility for use of each site these conditions form in effect an appendix to this agreement.

Conduct

Some of the issues discussed on the site may well be contentious yet debating such issues is in the public interest; therefore, in view of the limitations of electronic communications some discussions may appear confrontational. The Company is committed to free speech; understands that you may feel strongly about certain issues; that you have a right to your feelings and the views that you hold. At the same time whilst we support your right to express your views you understand that other users have rights and the Company is unable to protect you from the consequences of the use of language that may be defamatory or is otherwise illegal.

In view of the importance of free speech and open debate, the Company will only ban or remove users as a last resort. It is expected that Moderators and Gatekeepers will resolve issues on the lists for which they are responsible, but in the event that they are unable to resolve them the final decision as to what action to take rests with the Directors of the Company and these decisions are final. Should you feel uncomfortable on a particular discussion group you are welcome to bring your complaint to the attention of the Directors. As a result of your complaint the Company reserves the right to take any action it deems appropriate and this action might include polling other Users as to whether an individual should be asked to leave a list, or allowing Users who feel uncomfortable to set up their own lists excluding themselves from these areas in order not to stifle debate.

We suggest that you both express your own view and respect the opinions of others: From time to time we may run a poll on certain issues; users are free either to contribute, or to watch the debate and vote on the issues that they have been discussing. Any User wishing to contribute is asked to consider that however forcibly he or she states a position, in order for that contribution to make a difference others are more likely to lean towards the view expressed if the views of others are listened to and respected.

User Content Posted on the Site. Any material that Users put on the Site, an activity described as “Posting”, is defined as User content. You are solely responsible for all materials that you post to the site. Where you own rights and can demonstrate that you own them, you retain them, but Vetpol Ltd accepts no responsibility for any losses you or others may incur from sharing materials on the site; see intellectual property below.Whilst you are welcome to ask the Company for assistance in creating backups, you remain solely responsible at your cost and expense for creating backup copies and replacing any User Content you post or store on the Site or provide to the Company.

The costs of your transmitting content to the site, or downloading any content from the site e.g. via your broadband or other telecommunications provider, remain your sole responsibility.

It is understood that you may wish to use the site for continuing professional development and exchanging information; therefore it is inevitable that you will be using information from this Site for personal, professional or commercial use. However you accept that this information is not advice from Vetpol Ltd, its Directors or shareholders, you take personal and professional responsibility for how you use the information and for the consequences of your actions in using the information for any purpose. Vetpol Ltd accepts no responsibility whatsoever for any consequences of your use of the information and you accept this.

Confidentiality

Users agree that whilst polls may be published anonymously in order to inform the public debate, the individual views of users posted on lists remain confidential, and should not be published elsewhere without the explicit permission of the individual person or organisation expressing that view, unless the views are published anonymously, in context and in a way that does not misrepresent the view or imply that this view is in any way representative unless that can be demonstrated and the source is quoted.

Intellectual Property:

In addition to trademarks and copyright the Site may contain or reference for example patents, proprietary information, technologies, products, processes, trade secrets or other proprietary rights. No license to or right in any such patents, trade secrets, technologies, products processes and other proprietary rights of Vetpol Ltd and/or other parties is granted to or conferred upon you. By using this site you agree that you will not use the site to take any form of ownership of the intellectual property of others without their prior written permission: You are specifically prompted to consider that for example no site content may be modified, copied, distributed, framed, reproduced, republished, downloaded, scraped, displayed, posted, transmitted, or sold in any form without the company’s prior written permission where such materials are the property of the company, or without the User’s permission where such materials are owned by a User of the Site. You are prompted to consider that you may not distribute, modify, transmit, reuse, repost or use the content of the Site unless you are a on a part of the Site designated as for this purpose, or where the owner of the material has uploaded the materials in order for you to be able to download them. You agree that when posting material to the site or using material derived from the site you will respect the intellectual property of others and in particular you will not modify or use in any way any trademarks, designs or corporate livery that are the property of others unless there is a specific, written agreement in place permitting such use and describing the conditions of use; where conditions appear on this Site concerning use of these trademarks these are in effect an appendix to this agreement.

On areas of the Site or on Satellite Sites run by Vetpol Ltd and designated as for public access, if you access and use the content then you accept that the copyright is owned by Vetpol Ltd or by the individual person or organisation registered with Vetpol claiming copyright. Should you use the content in anyway then it is expected that you will acknowledge this copyright and refer others back to Vetpol and to the owner of the copyright if the owner requests it. File sharing: You are also specifically prompted to consider whether if you use the site for file-sharing you have the right to use the materials that you are sharing with others: In particular you are prompted to consider both whether you own the intellectual property and also whether you should remove any personal data; Vetpol Ltd asks that you take particular care with any materials that might contain images of children or enable others to identify their identities or other personal details. Vetpol Ltd takes no responsibility for the materials that you share, or for your obligations to protect the rights of others, but reserves the right at any time to remove or edit any materials that may appear to be inaccurate or be deemed offensive to others or move these to parts of the site where the likelihood of offense is reduced.

Vetpol's right to intervene

In using the site no license to or right in any copyright owned by Vetpol Ltd or any of the trademarks or any other intellectual property owned or used by Vetpol Ltd or any other party is granted or conferred to you; should you use the Site for commercial, personal or other purposes to exchange information between you and any other party, that use is the subject of a separate agreement between you and that Party; neither Vetpol Ltd nor the Directors of Vetpol Ltd accept any responsibility for such use nor any obligation to intervene in such discussions, although the Company reserves the right to intervene in any discussions taking place on the Site for the benefit of other Users.

Supplier rights

The Company will be using software licensed or purchased from suppliers to run the site, some of which may be open-source software; your use of the Site confers no copyright or other rights in this software.

Where you make suggestions or submissions to improve the performance of the site for Users you accept that the Company may use these suggestions without limitation, and that these suggestions do not confer any rights in any Vetpol Ltd, its intellectual property or the intellectual property of its suppliers. You also accept that the Company may share these suggestions with the providers of the Software for the benefit of all and without acknowledgement or compensation to you in accordance with the open-source principle.

These terms of use constitute the entire agreement between you and the Company relating to your use of the Site with the sole proviso that as described above under Satellite Sites, in effect additional terms on these Satellite Sites form an Appendix to this agreement. The failure of the Company to enforce any of the provisions of these Terms does not constitute a waiver of any of the provisions in any instance.

If any provision of this agreement is held invalid or deemed unlawful, void or unenforceable, the remainder of the agreement shall continue in force and all the remaining provisions shall remain enforceable.

Indemnity: You agree to indemnify the Company and each of its Directors, officers, agents, partners or employees harmless against any losses arising as a consequence of your use of the Site.

Maintenance of the Site is necessary, largely to protect the security of Users. Consequently the Site may from time to time be unavailable.The Company accepts no liability for any error, omission, interruption, deletion, defect, delay in operation, telecommunications failure, theft, destruction, alteration, or unauthorised access to User content or the Site.

The Company is not responsible for any technical malfunction or other problems of any network or service allowing users to connect to the site, or for any problems with hardware or services allowing users to connect to the Site including mobile phone equipment, software failure or failure of e-mail or for any consequences arising from these problems.

Third Parties may at the discretion of the Directors use the site to collect subscriptions from their members. You agree that Vetpol Ltd may collect these subscriptions yet is under no obligation to do so.

The Directors of Vetpol Ltd may from time to time at their sole discretion nominate administrative staff who are not members of the Veterinary Professions to assist in the administration of the Site.

Use of cookies and tracking IP addresses: For your convenience, if you click the optional "remember me" when logging into the site this facility will use a cookie to enable you to revisit the site without having to log back in. The software we use tracks IP [Internet Protocol] addresses to enable us to spot hackers and spreaders of malware and also to enable us to check the usefulness of advertisements provided by our sponsors. These activities do not allow us to collect personal data from registered users.

As with many internet sites, our site is frequently visited by hackers, spreaders of porn and malware, some of whom attempt to log in to gain access. Whilst we do not allow access, the owners of the site reserve the right to collect and process the IP addresses, email addresses and user names of these individuals in order to protect our registered users. If you visit the site, or register with the site then you are agreeing that we will do so.

Updates to these Terms and Conditions

From time to time as the Site develops alongside the needs of Veterinary Professionals it will be necessary to update these terms and the Company reserves the right to notify you via e-mail that the Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy have been updated. If you have any suggestions for improvements that you feel may protect both you as a User, Vetpol Ltd, and its other Users you are welcome to contact us at enquiries@pmark.co.uk.

Last reviewed November 2018.
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