Controller
Eläinklinikka Saari Oy (business ID 0708667-9), Gerbyntie 18, 65230 Vaasa, Finland. Phone (06) 321 7300, info@saarivet.fi. Contact person for privacy matters: Pamela Kvarngård.
Whose data we process
Clients (pet owners) and people who contact us by phone, WhatsApp, email or through this website.
What we process and why
| Purpose | Data | Legal basis |
|---|---|---|
| Treating your animal and keeping patient records | Name, contact details, address, your animals' details, treatment history, lab results, images, invoices; personal ID number only if you choose instalment payment | Contract; legal obligation (Veterinary Practice Act 29/2000) |
| Appointments | The details you give when booking by phone or online | Contract |
| Phone calls we cannot answer | Calls to (06) 321 7300 that staff cannot answer are taken by an AI assistant. It writes down your message so we can call you back. Calls are not recorded. We keep the written transcript and summary of the call. | Contract and legitimate interest (answering our customers) |
| Our WhatsApp line is answered by an AI assistant, and staff can take over. Voice messages are turned into text on our own server. Messages about your animal are saved in its patient record. | Contract and legitimate interest | |
| Messages we send you | Call-back confirmations, appointment and vaccination reminders, a follow-up question after a visit, preliminary lab results, webshop pick-up notices – by WhatsApp, SMS or email | Contract and legitimate interest (no marketing) |
| Waiting-room camera | A live camera picture of the waiting room is shown on staff screens so we can see who is waiting. Software marks each waiting person on the screen and times the wait. Nothing is recorded and no images are saved. A sign at the entrance tells about the camera. | Legitimate interest (customer service and safety) |
| Website statistics and ads | See "Cookies" below | Your consent |
| Accounting | Invoices and payments | Legal obligation (Accounting Act) |
Who receives data
- Laboratories we send samples to (IDEXX, Movet, Laboklin, Patovet) and other vets we consult for advice: the details needed for that case.
- Insurance companies, when you ask us to send a direct claim.
- Authorities, when the law requires it (e.g. the Finnish Food Authority).
- Instalment payments: Walley decides on the credit as a separate controller and processes your data under its own privacy policy.
Service providers who process data for us
These data processors are bound by contract:
- Patient records and online booking: Nordhealth Finland Oy (ProvetCloud), EU
- Server: Hetzner Online GmbH, EU (Finland/Germany)
- Phone line and SMS: Twilio Inc. (USA); AI voice assistant: Retell AI Inc. (USA)
- AI language model for the phone and WhatsApp assistants and for staff tools: Anthropic PBC (USA)
- WhatsApp: Meta Platforms Ireland Ltd
- Email: Google (Gmail) and Resend Inc. (USA)
- Website hosting and security: GitHub Inc. (USA), Cloudflare Inc. (USA)
- Webshop payments: Stripe (see the webshop's own privacy notice)
Where a provider is outside the EU/EEA, the transfer is protected by the EU–US Data Privacy Framework and/or the EU Commission's standard contractual clauses.
How long we keep data
- Patient records: at least 3 years from the last entry (Veterinary Practice Act 29/2000, 15 §); we keep them as long as you are our client.
- Medicine records: 5 years (EU Regulation 2019/6).
- Accounting records: vouchers 6 years from the end of the financial year, account books 10 years (Accounting Act).
- Phone call transcripts and WhatsApp conversations: 12 months, then deleted. Anything about your animal is also saved in its patient record and kept as above.
- Website statistics: at most 14 months in Google Analytics (our account setting), Microsoft Clarity 13 months, Meta per its own terms.
Cookies
The website uses Google Analytics and Google Ads (Google Ireland Ltd), the Meta pixel (Meta Platforms Ireland Ltd) and Microsoft Clarity (Microsoft Ireland Operations Ltd) only if you click Accept in the cookie banner. They measure visits, how the site is used and how our ads perform; Clarity also records anonymised page sessions, with form fields hidden. If you reject, none of them loads. Google Maps is loaded only after you accept or click "Show map". You can change your choice at any time under Cookie settings at the bottom of every page.
Automated decisions
We make no decisions about you by automated means alone. The AI assistants only take messages and answer questions; staff decide on your animal's care.
Your rights
You have the right to see your data, to have wrong data corrected, to have data deleted when the law does not require us to keep it, to restrict or object to processing, to receive your data in a portable form, and to withdraw consent at any time. Send requests to info@saarivet.fi or call (06) 321 7300. You can also complain to the Data Protection Ombudsman (tietosuoja.fi).
Company information
Eläinklinikka Saari Oy, business ID 0708667-9, VAT FI07086679, Gerbyntie 18, 65230 Vaasa. Our veterinarians are licensed in Finland (professional title eläinlääkäri / veterinär) and supervised by the Finnish Food Authority (Ruokavirasto). Professional rules: the Veterinary Practice Act (29/2000) and the Finnish Veterinary Association's code of ethics.