Privacy

Instant Vet Chat is built so that we hold as little about you as possible. There are no accounts, and we don’t ask for your name unless you choose to send your case to a clinic.

Who is responsible for your data

The controller of your personal data is Instant Vet Chat. Contact us about anything on this page at hello@instantvetchat.com.

What we use, why, and our lawful basis

Under the UK GDPR we must have a lawful basis for each use of your personal data. These are ours:

What you type and the photos you share

Each message (and any photo you attach) is sent to our server and passed to an AI model provider, Anthropic (Claude) or Google (Gemini), to write the reply. We don’t store your conversation on our servers. The conversation and your case file are saved in your own browser’s local storage so a refresh doesn’t lose them; “Start over” clears them, as does clearing your browser’s site data. The AI providers process requests under their API terms, which do not use API traffic to train their models by default.

Who receives your data

• Vercel hosts the site and keeps short-lived logs: technical details such as IP address and request time, and our error reports.
• Vercel Web Analytics counts page views and the funnel steps listed above. It sets no cookie, receives no message content, and sees each page address without its query.
• Sentry receives our server error reports, scrubbed of personal details, and only when error reporting is switched on.
• Anthropic and Google (Gemini) run the AI models that write the chat’s replies.
• Google Places and OpenStreetMap are searched from your browser, with your location, when you ask for nearby vets.
• Stripe takes payments on its own checkout page and tells us whether a payment succeeded.
• Upstash stores rate-limit counters, purchase records (a payment reference, amount and status; no card details), clinic sign-ups and clinic records, and a record of which clinic each case was sent to and when.
• Resend delivers the clinic network’s emails: sign-up notices, verification and approval links, and the case summaries owners choose to send.
• The clinic you choose receives your case summary, name and email when you send it your case, with your consent.

International transfers

Several of these providers are based in, or process data in, the United States. Where your data leaves the UK, it is protected by the UK–US data bridge for certified providers or by the UK International Data Transfer Addendum to the standard contractual clauses.

How long we keep it

• Chats and photos: we keep no server copy. They stay in your browser’s local storage until you start over or clear it.
• The pass cookie: 24 hours from payment.
• Rate-limit counters in the shared store expire within one hour. Without the store they are held only in the server’s memory, and are lost when it restarts.
• Purchase records: kept as our accounting record. They hold a payment reference, the amount and its status, and no name, email or card details.
• Clinic records: until the clinic asks us to delete them.
• Cases sent to a clinic: we keep no copy of the case, your name or your email; only which clinic it went to and when. The clinic keeps the email it received under its own privacy policy.
• Error reports: deleted when our hosting logs expire, and kept by Sentry for its plan’s retention period when error reporting is on.

Clinics

If a clinic joins the network, we keep the details it submits (clinic name, contact email, phone, city, country and region). We use them to verify the clinic’s email, review every clinic by hand, and list approved clinics for pet owners in their region. Owners see a listed clinic’s name, city, practice type and whether it is taking new clients, never its email or phone. Ask us any time to delete them.

If you finish a triage, you can choose to email your case summary to an approved clinic in your region. Your case summary, name and email go to the clinic you choose only with your consent, ticked by you each time, and a copy comes to you. We don’t store the case itself: we keep only which clinic it went to and when.

Your rights in the UK

Under the UK GDPR you can ask for a copy of your data, and ask us to correct it, delete it, restrict how we use it, or move it; you can also object to any use based on legitimate interests. Email us to use any of these rights. Because we don’t store conversations, most of what exists about you is in your own browser and under your control. If you are unhappy with how we handle your data, you can complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) at ico.org.uk or on 0303 123 1113.

Your rights in the United States

If you live in California or another state with a consumer privacy law (such as Colorado, Connecticut, Virginia or Utah), you have the right to know what personal information we collect and how we use it, and to ask us to delete or correct it. Email us to make a request; we will not treat you differently for doing so. We do not sell or share personal information, as those laws define it, and we do not use it for targeted advertising.

Cookies and local storage

We set at most two cookies: the signed pass that keeps your paid session unlocked for 24 hours, and, only if you switch it, one that remembers your price region. Both are strictly necessary for the service you asked for. Your chat, your case file, a pending payment’s reference and which funnel steps your case has already counted are kept in your browser’s local storage, not in a cookie. Our visit counting sets no cookie. We use no advertising or tracking cookies.

Children

Instant Vet Chat is for adults. Paying requires you to be 18 or over, and we do not knowingly collect personal data from children.