Privacy Policy
Effective date: July 17, 2026
The Sams Clinic (“The Sams Clinic,” “we,” “us,” or “our”) respects your privacy. This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, disclose, retain, and protect personal information when you visit thesamsclinic.com, submit an online form, communicate with us electronically, or otherwise interact with our website and related digital services.
This Policy applies to website and online interactions. Additional authorizations or practices may apply to veterinary records and services provided directly by the clinic.
Information We Collect
Information You Provide
Depending on how you interact with us, you may provide:
- Contact information, including your name, email address, telephone number, mailing address, and organization.
- Appointment and client information, including preferred appointment dates, scheduling requests, and information necessary to respond to an inquiry or provide veterinary services.
- Pet and veterinary information, including your pet’s name, species, medical history, condition, medications, diagnostic information, treatment records, photographs, videos, imaging, reports, and other files you choose to submit.
- Veterinary referral information, including referring veterinarian and hospital information, consultation requests, referral details, and patient updates.
- Prescription and records information, including medication refill requests, veterinary practice contact information, records requests, and related authorizations.
- Professional information, including information submitted in connection with continuing education, clinical collaboration, research, or other professional inquiries.
- Employment information, including résumés, curricula vitae, qualifications, employment history, and other information submitted when applying for a position.
- Communications, including messages, questions, feedback, and information provided by telephone, email, forms, or other correspondence.
Please do not submit Social Security numbers, financial account credentials, passwords, human medical records, or other unnecessary sensitive information through a general website form.
Information Collected Automatically
When you use our website, we and the service providers supporting it may automatically collect information such as:
- Internet Protocol address
- Browser and device type
- Operating system
- Pages viewed and links selected
- Date and time of access
- Referring website or search source
- General geographic area derived from an IP address
- Website interactions and performance information
- Cookie and similar technology identifiers
This information helps us operate, secure, evaluate, and improve the website and understand how people find and use it.
Cookies and Similar Technologies
Our website may use cookies, pixels, tags, local storage, and similar technologies for purposes including:
- Operating essential website functions
- Remembering preferences
- Maintaining security and preventing spam
- Measuring website traffic and performance
- Understanding how visitors use the website
- Evaluating the effectiveness of communications and advertising
- Delivering or measuring advertising, where permitted
You can control many cookies through your browser settings. Blocking some cookies may affect website functionality.
Analytics and advertising providers may collect device and usage information according to their own privacy policies. We do not use the contents of veterinary records, uploaded clinical files, or private communications for targeted advertising.
How We Use Information
We may use personal information to:
- Respond to questions and requests
- Schedule consultations and appointments
- Evaluate and coordinate veterinary care
- Communicate with pet owners, referring veterinarians, and other authorized parties
- Process referral, consultation, prescription, and records requests
- Provide information about services, preparation, travel, and follow-up care
- Maintain client, patient, clinical, and business records
- Review employment applications
- Coordinate continuing education, research, or professional collaborations
- Operate, maintain, secure, and improve our website
- Measure website performance and the effectiveness of outreach or advertising
- Detect fraud, misuse, security incidents, and technical problems
- Enforce our terms and protect the rights, safety, and property of The Sams Clinic, our clients, patients, staff, and others
- Comply with legal, regulatory, insurance, professional, and recordkeeping obligations
We may combine information collected through different interactions when reasonably necessary for these purposes.
How We Disclose Information
Veterinary Care and Client Direction
We may disclose relevant information to referring or primary-care veterinarians, veterinary specialists, laboratories, imaging providers, pharmacies, rehabilitation providers, consultants, insurers, and other parties involved in a patient’s care or authorized by the client.
Service Providers
We may disclose information to providers that support our website, hosting, forms, data storage, security, communications, scheduling, records management, analytics, advertising, and other business operations. These providers receive information only as reasonably necessary to perform services for us.
With Your Consent or at Your Request
We may disclose information when you direct or authorize us to do so.
Legal and Safety Purposes
We may disclose information when we reasonably believe disclosure is necessary to comply with law, legal process, professional obligations, or regulatory requirements; investigate suspected wrongdoing; enforce an agreement; or protect the rights, property, health, or safety of The Sams Clinic or others.
Business Transactions
Information may be disclosed as part of a merger, acquisition, financing, reorganization, sale of assets, or similar business transaction, subject to appropriate safeguards and applicable law.
Sale and Sharing of Personal Information
The Sams Clinic does not sell personal information for money.
We may use analytics or advertising technologies that allow providers to collect device and website-usage information. Depending on the technology and applicable law, some disclosures for cross-context behavioral advertising may be considered “sharing” of personal information.
Where required by applicable law, we will provide or honor available methods for opting out of such activity, including recognized browser-based opt-out signals such as the Global Privacy Control.
We do not sell veterinary records, uploaded clinical files, or the contents of private client communications, and we do not disclose those materials for cross-context behavioral advertising.
Email and Text Communications
We may use the contact information you provide to respond to inquiries and send appointment, care, records, referral, or other service-related communications.
If you elect to receive promotional email or text messages, you may withdraw that consent using the instructions included in the communication or by contacting us. Opting out of promotional messages does not prevent us from sending communications necessary to respond to your request or provide services.
Message and data rates may apply to text messages.
Data Retention
We retain personal information for as long as reasonably necessary to provide services, maintain appropriate veterinary and business records, fulfill the purposes described in this Policy, resolve disputes, enforce agreements, and comply with legal, professional, insurance, and regulatory obligations.
Retention periods vary depending on the nature of the information and the reason it was collected. Information may remain in secured backups for a limited period after deletion from active systems.
Data Security
We use reasonable administrative, technical, and physical measures designed to protect personal information against unauthorized access, loss, misuse, alteration, or disclosure.
No website, electronic transmission, or storage system can be guaranteed to be completely secure. Please use care when submitting information online and contact us if you believe information submitted to The Sams Clinic may have been compromised.
Your Privacy Choices and Rights
Depending on where you reside and the laws applicable to The Sams Clinic, you may have the right to request that we:
- Confirm whether we process your personal information
- Provide access to certain personal information
- Correct inaccurate personal information
- Delete certain personal information
- Provide a portable copy of certain information
- Explain the categories and purposes of information collected or disclosed
- Restrict or limit certain uses of sensitive personal information
- Allow you to opt out of the sale or sharing of personal information or certain targeted advertising
You may also have the right not to receive discriminatory treatment for exercising an applicable privacy right.
These rights are subject to legal limitations and exceptions, including obligations to retain veterinary, transaction, safety, or regulatory records.
To make a privacy request, contact us using the information below. We may need to verify your identity and authority before completing a request. An authorized agent may submit a request where permitted by law, but we may require evidence of authorization and identity verification.
Children’s Privacy
Our website is intended for adults seeking veterinary or professional services. We do not knowingly collect personal information online from children under 13. If you believe a child has submitted personal information to us, please contact us so that we can review and address the information appropriately.
Third-Party Websites and Services
Our website may contain links to maps, social media platforms, payment or scheduling services, and other third-party websites or services. Their privacy practices are governed by their own policies, not this Privacy Policy. We encourage you to review those policies before providing personal information.
Visitors From Outside the United States
The Sams Clinic is located in California, and information submitted through our website may be processed and stored in the United States. Privacy laws in the United States may differ from those in your jurisdiction.
Changes to This Policy
We may update this Privacy Policy to reflect changes in our services, technologies, legal requirements, or privacy practices. The revised Policy will be posted on this page with an updated effective date. Material changes may also be communicated through other appropriate means.
Contact Us
For questions about this Privacy Policy, our privacy practices, or a privacy request, contact:
The Sams Clinic
489 Miller Avenue
Mill Valley, CA 94941
Telephone: 415.380.0500
Fax: 415.380.0504
Email: info@thesamsclinic.com
Website: thesamsclinic.com