LEGAL

Privacy Policy

Effective date: August 17, 2026

1. Introduction

Stonelake Animal Hospital respects your privacy. This policy explains what personal information we collect through our website at https://stonelakeanimalhospital.com, how we use it, who we share it with, and the choices you have. It applies to visitors to our website and to people who contact us through it. It does not cover the veterinary records we keep for patients, which are governed separately by California veterinary practice requirements.

We handle personal information in accordance with the California Consumer Privacy Act (Cal. Civ. Code Section 1798.100 et seq.), as amended by the California Privacy Rights Act, and with all other applicable federal and California law.

If you have questions about this policy, contact the Privacy Contact at Stonelake Animal Hospital by phone at (916) 714-3333, by mail at the address in Section 16, or through the contact form on our website.

2. Information We Collect

2.1 Information You Provide Directly

We collect information you choose to give us through forms on or linked from our website, by phone, or by text message. Depending on the form, this can include your name, your pet’s name and details, your phone number, your email address, your mailing address, and whatever you write in a message or comments field. New client registration collects the information we need to open a client and patient file. Product refill requests collect the details of the item you are asking us to prepare. Job applicants may also submit a resume.

Appointment booking and some client messaging are handled by a third-party platform that opens on that provider’s own website in a new tab rather than on ours. Information you enter there is collected and held by that provider on our behalf, under our instructions, and is used for the purposes described in this policy.

Our online store is operated by a third-party retail provider on a separate website that is not part of stonelakeanimalhospital.com, even though the address contains our name. If you create an account, place an order, or enter payment details there, that information is collected by that provider under its own privacy policy rather than under this one. Read that policy before you order.

We ask only for what we need in order to respond to you or to arrange care for your pet. You do not have to provide information, but some requests cannot be actioned without it.

2.2 Information Collected Automatically

When you visit our website, certain information is collected automatically by the systems that run it. This can include your IP address, browser type and version, device type, operating system, the pages you view, how long you spend on them, the website or search that referred you, and general location inferred from your IP address at a city or region level.

This information is collected through cookies and similar technologies. Section 5 explains those in more detail and how to control them.

2.3 Communication Platforms

When you call, text, or message us, our communication systems record the details of that contact. This can include your phone number, the date and time, the content of a message, voicemail audio, and a written transcript of a voicemail. Section 7 explains how automated and AI-assisted tools are used in these systems.

3. How We Use Your Information

We use the information we collect to:

Respond to inquiries, appointment requests, and messages
Schedule, confirm, and remind you about appointments
Provide veterinary services and communicate with you about your pet’s care
Prepare and fulfill product refill requests
Process payments, administer financing applications you choose to make, and maintain billing records
Send service updates and, where you have agreed to receive them, occasional practice news
Improve our website, understand how visitors use it, and measure the performance of our advertising
Respond to job applications
Meet our legal, regulatory, and record-keeping obligations

We collect and use personal information only for the purposes described above and for purposes compatible with them. We do not use your information for a materially different purpose without telling you first. We do not sell your personal information for money. Section 10 and the Your Privacy Choices section at the bottom of this page explain what is shared, with whom, and how to opt out.

4. SMS and Text Message Communications

Stonelake Animal Hospital sends text messages to clients who have provided a mobile number and agreed to receive them. Our text messaging is governed by the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) and the rules made under it.

We obtain your written consent before sending you text messages. On our website forms, that consent is a separate checkbox that is never pre-checked, and you can submit the form without checking it. Consent to receive text messages is not a condition of receiving veterinary services or of purchasing anything from us. The messages we send relate to appointment confirmations, reminders, follow-up on your pet’s care, and, where you have separately agreed to them, occasional practice news.

You can stop text messages at any time by replying STOP to any message you receive from us, and we will send a single confirmation that you have been unsubscribed. Reply HELP for assistance, or call us at (916) 714-3333. Message frequency varies. Message and data rates may apply depending on your mobile plan. We do not control, and are not responsible for, delays or failures in delivery caused by your mobile carrier. We do not sell or share mobile numbers collected for text messaging with third parties for their own marketing purposes.

5. Cookies and Similar Technologies

5.1 Types of Cookies

Our website uses three categories of cookies:

Essential. Required for the website to function, including page navigation, security, and remembering your cookie choices. These are always active and cannot be switched off.
Statistics. Help us understand how visitors find and use the website, which pages are read, and where people leave. These are set only with your consent.
Marketing. Used to measure the performance of our advertising and to show relevant ads to people who have visited our website. These are set only with your consent.

5.2 Cookie Consent

When you first visit our website you are shown a consent banner where you can accept or decline non-essential cookies by category. Your choice is stored and applied on subsequent visits. You can change your choice at any time through the cookie settings link available on the website, and withdrawing consent is as straightforward as giving it. The consent banner and cookie configuration on this website are configured by VSA Vet Media Inc. on our behalf.

5.3 Global Privacy Control and Universal Opt-Out Signals

Our website detects and honors the Global Privacy Control signal and other universal opt-out mechanisms transmitted by your browser or a browser extension. Where such a signal is detected, we treat it as a valid request to opt out of the sale and sharing of your personal information and as a withdrawal of your consent to analytics and advertising cookies, and we apply it without requiring any further action from you. We treat it that way whether or not you have an account with us and whether or not you have otherwise identified yourself.

5.4 Online Advertising and Remarketing

We advertise online within our local service area. We do not run national or international advertising campaigns. Advertising and social media platforms may place cookies or similar identifiers on your device so that we can measure how our ads perform and show relevant ads to people who have previously visited our website. This is commonly called remarketing or retargeting, and under California law it is a form of sharing your personal information for cross-context behavioral advertising. We do this on the basis of the consent you give through our cookie banner, and you can withdraw that consent at any time.

You can control this in several ways. Decline Marketing cookies in our consent banner, or reopen the banner later through the cookie settings link. Use the Your Privacy Choices section at the bottom of this page. Adjust your advertising settings directly at google.com/settings/ads. Opt out of interest-based advertising across participating networks at networkadvertising.org/managing/opt_out.asp. You can also use the opt-out controls provided within your social media account settings.

6. Third-Party Services

We work with third-party providers who handle information on our behalf. We describe them by the function they perform rather than by name, because providers change over time. These include:

Website hosting and content management providers
Website analytics and measurement platforms
Tag management platforms
Advertising and social media platforms
Communication providers, including telephone, text messaging, and voicemail services
Online form and appointment booking providers
Online retail and product fulfillment providers
Payment processing providers
Consumer financing providers, which assess applications you choose to make and communicate with you directly about them
Practice management and record-keeping systems

These providers may access personal information only as needed to perform their function for us, and are required to protect it to a standard comparable to our own. Under California law, providers who handle personal information on our written instructions and for no purpose of their own are service providers or contractors, and we do not permit them to retain, use, or disclose your information for any purpose other than performing the service we engaged them for. Advertising and social media platforms are described separately in Section 10, because our relationship with them is not always a service provider relationship.

7. AI-Assisted Tools

We use communication systems that include AI-assisted features. We disclose this openly rather than leaving it implied.

7.1 No Medical Decisions by AI

AI tools are used for communication and administrative support only. They do not assess your pet, do not determine what care your pet receives, and do not make any clinical decision. Every clinical judgment is made by a veterinarian licensed in California who has examined your animal.

7.2 Call Recording

Telephone calls to and from Stonelake Animal Hospital may be recorded and transcribed for quality, training, and record-keeping purposes. California is an all-party consent state: under California Penal Code Section 632, a confidential communication may be recorded only where every party to the call knows about the recording and consents to it. You will be notified at the start of a call that recording may take place, and continuing with the call is how you give your consent. If you do not wish to be recorded, tell us at the beginning of the call and we will either stop the recording or continue without it, and you will receive the same service either way. You may also ask us at any time what a recording was used for and how long we keep it.

7.3 Automated Communications

We use automated systems to send appointment reminders and confirmations, to transcribe voicemail messages into text, to sort incoming calls so that they reach the right person, and to draft suggested replies to messages we receive online. Any suggested reply is read and approved by a member of our team before it is sent or published.

7.4 AI Interaction Disclosure

If you interact with a chatbot on our website or an automated attendant when you telephone us, you are interacting with an automated system rather than a person. You can ask to speak to a member of our team at any point and we will connect you.

7.5 Your Rights Regarding AI-Assisted Tools

You may ask us not to record or transcribe your calls, and you may ask to communicate with a person rather than an automated system. You may also request information about how these tools handle your personal information. Contact the Privacy Contact at Stonelake Animal Hospital by phone at (916) 714-3333, by mail at the address in Section 16, or through the contact form on our website.

8. Data Protection and Security

We maintain administrative, technical, and physical safeguards designed to protect personal information against loss, misuse, unauthorized access, and unauthorized disclosure. Access is limited to team members and providers who need it in order to do their work. No method of transmission over the internet and no method of electronic storage is completely secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security.

8.1 Data Breach Notification

If a security incident affects your personal information, we will notify you and the appropriate California authorities as required by applicable law.

9. Your Privacy Rights

If you are a California resident, you have rights under the California Consumer Privacy Act (Cal. Civ. Code Section 1798.100 et seq.), as amended by the California Privacy Rights Act. Those rights are:

The right to know and access. You may ask us what categories of personal information we have collected about you, the sources we collected it from, the business purposes we collected it for, the categories of third parties we disclosed it to, and the specific pieces of personal information we hold about you.
The right to delete. You may ask us to delete personal information we have collected from you, subject to the exceptions the statute allows, including information we are required to keep under California veterinary record-keeping, tax, and accounting rules.
The right to correct. You may ask us to correct inaccurate personal information we hold about you.
The right to data portability. You may ask us to provide the personal information you gave us in a portable format that is readily usable, where it is technically feasible to do so.
The right to opt out of sale and sharing. You may direct us to stop selling or sharing your personal information for cross-context behavioral advertising. See the Your Privacy Choices section at the bottom of this page.
The right to limit the use of sensitive personal information. You may direct us to limit the use and disclosure of sensitive personal information to what is necessary to provide the services you asked for. We do not use or disclose sensitive personal information for any purpose beyond that, so no separate request is needed, but you may make one and we will honor it.
The right to non-discrimination and non-retaliation. We will not deny you services, charge you a different price, provide you a different level or quality of service, or retaliate against you in any way because you exercised a privacy right.

To exercise any of these rights, contact the Privacy Contact at Stonelake Animal Hospital by phone at (916) 714-3333, by mail at the address in Section 16, or through the contact form on our website. We will verify your identity before acting on a request, and the verification we ask for will be proportionate to the sensitivity of the information involved. We will respond within the timeframe required by the applicable statute. You may also use an authorized agent to submit a request on your behalf, in which case we may ask for written permission signed by you and may still verify your identity directly with you.

We respect all applicable US state consumer privacy laws. If you live outside California, you may have similar rights under the law of your state, and you may exercise them using the same contact methods.

10. Sharing of Information

We disclose personal information to the categories of third-party providers described in Section 6, so that they can perform their function for us, and where disclosure is required or permitted by law, by a court order, or by a regulatory authority. We may also disclose information where you have asked us to, for example when we refer your pet to another veterinary practice.

Separately from those service provider relationships, we share personal information as that word is defined by the California Consumer Privacy Act as amended by the California Privacy Rights Act. When our advertising and analytics cookies are active, online identifiers, device information, and browsing activity are made available to advertising and social media platforms so that we can measure our marketing and show relevant ads to people who have visited our website. California law treats that as sharing for cross-context behavioral advertising, and it is disclosed here for that reason even though we receive no money for it. We do this only where you have consented through our cookie banner, and you may opt out at any time through the banner, through the cookie settings link, through the universal opt-out signals described in Section 5.3, or through the Your Privacy Choices section at the bottom of this page.

We do not sell personal information for money. We do not knowingly sell or share the personal information of any consumer under 16 years of age.

11. Children's Privacy

Our website is intended for adults. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13 years of age. If you believe a child under 13 has provided us with personal information, contact us using the details in Section 16 and we will delete it.

12. Links to External Websites

Our website contains links to third-party websites, including pet health resources, government pages, our online store, and the appointment booking platform described in Section 2.1. Our online store in particular is a separate website operated by a third party, and it remains a third-party website even though its address contains our name. We provide these links for convenience. We do not control those websites and are not responsible for their content or their privacy practices. Review the privacy policy of any website you visit through a link from ours.

Where we operate social media profiles, including profiles on Meta platforms such as Facebook and Instagram, those profiles are hosted by those companies rather than by us. Anything you post or send through a social media platform is governed by that platform’s own privacy policy and terms, not by this one. We have no control over how those platforms collect or use your information, and we would encourage you to review their settings if that matters to you.

13. Data Retention

We keep personal information for as long as needed for the purpose it was collected, and for as long as we are required to keep it under applicable law, including California veterinary record-keeping requirements and tax and accounting rules. We do not keep personal information for longer than is reasonably necessary for the purpose we disclosed when we collected it. When information is no longer needed, we delete it or render it anonymous.

14. Changes to This Privacy Policy

We may update this policy from time to time. The effective date at the top of this page shows when it was last revised. Where a change is significant, we will make that clear on the website. Continuing to use our website after a change takes effect means you accept the updated policy.

15. Website Design and Management

This website is designed and managed by VSA Vet Media Inc. on behalf of Stonelake Animal Hospital. In providing those services, VSA Vet Media Inc. may handle personal information submitted through the website, including form submissions, and does so only on our written instructions and for the purposes described in this policy. VSA Vet Media Inc. is not a veterinary practice and does not provide veterinary advice.

16. Contact Information

For any question about this policy, to exercise a privacy right, or to make a complaint about how we have handled your personal information, contact us:

Privacy Contact, Stonelake Animal Hospital
2521 W Taron Ct, Ste 150, Elk Grove, CA 95757
Phone: (916) 714-3333
Website: https://stonelakeanimalhospital.com

You may also submit a request through the contact form on our website. If you are not satisfied with our response, you may contact the California Privacy Protection Agency or the Office of the Attorney General of California.

Your Privacy Choices / Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information

This section explains how to opt out of the sharing of your personal information for advertising, and it is provided under the California Consumer Privacy Act (Cal. Civ. Code Section 1798.100 et seq.), as amended by the California Privacy Rights Act.

We do not sell your personal information for money. We do share it, in the sense California law gives that word. When our advertising cookies are active, the following categories of personal information may be shared with advertising and social media platforms for cross-context behavioral advertising:

Identifiers. Online identifiers such as cookie identifiers and advertising identifiers, and your IP address.
Internet or other electronic network activity. The pages you viewed on our website, how long you spent on them, and the website or search that brought you here.
Device and browser information. Device type, operating system, and browser type and version.
Approximate geolocation. A city or region level location inferred from your IP address. We do not share precise geolocation.

We do not share your name, your email address, your telephone number, your mailing address, your pet’s records, or any payment information with advertising platforms for this purpose. We do not share sensitive personal information for cross-context behavioral advertising at all.

How to opt out. You have four routes, and any one of them is enough:

Decline the Marketing cookie category in the consent banner on this website. You can reopen the banner at any time through the cookie settings link and change your choice.
Turn on the Global Privacy Control in your browser or browser extension. We detect and honor it automatically, as described in Section 5.3, and you do not need to contact us or identify yourself for it to work.
Adjust your advertising settings directly at google.com/settings/ads, and opt out of interest-based advertising across participating networks at networkadvertising.org/managing/opt_out.asp.
Contact the Privacy Contact at Stonelake Animal Hospital by phone at (916) 714-3333, by mail at 2521 W Taron Ct, Ste 150, Elk Grove, CA 95757, or through the contact form on our website, and tell us you want to opt out.

You do not need to create an account to opt out, and we will not ask you to verify your identity in order to honor an opt-out request. We will not treat you any differently because you opted out: your care, your pricing, and your service are unaffected. If you use an authorized agent to submit the request, we may ask for written permission signed by you.

An opt-out applies to the browser and device you make it on. If you clear your cookies, use a different browser, or use a different device, you will need to make the choice again on that browser or device. Turning on the Global Privacy Control is the most durable option for that reason.