First Paw is a mobile veterinary service based in Melbourne. This policy explains what personal information we collect, how we use it, who we share it with, and how you can contact us about it. We handle personal information in line with the Privacy Act 1988 and the Australian Privacy Principles. Last updated 19 September 2026.
What we collect
- Your name, email address, phone number, and the address where we visit your pet.
- Details about your pet and its care, including clinical notes, treatment history and vaccination records.
- Booking details when you book online, including the appointment time and any notes you add.
- Payment and invoicing details.
- Details of calls to our phone numbers, including your number, the time and the length of the call. Calls may be recorded for quality and training purposes.
- Information about how you use our website, collected through cookies and analytics tools.
How we use it
- To provide veterinary care to your pet and keep accurate clinical records.
- To book, confirm and remind you about appointments.
- To send receipts, certificates and invoices.
- To answer your enquiries.
- To understand how people find and use our website, and to improve our services.
- To manage our advertising, including making sure our ads are not shown to people who are already clients. See Advertising and analytics below.
Who we share it with
We share personal information only where it is needed to run the practice, and only with:
- Service providers who work for us, including our practice management software, our online booking system, our payment provider, our call tracking provider, and our marketing agency, For Vets. They may use your information only to provide their service to us.
- Other veterinary practices, specialists or laboratories involved in your pet's care, with your knowledge.
- Google, for website analytics and advertising, as explained below.
- Anyone we are required to share it with by law.
Some of these providers store information outside Australia, including in the United States. We take reasonable steps to make sure they protect it.
Advertising and analytics
We use Google Analytics to understand how our website is used, and Google Ads to advertise our services. These tools use cookies and similar technologies to measure visits and to record when a visit leads to a booking or a call.
To avoid showing our advertisements to people who are already clients, we give Google the email address and mobile number on our client records in a scrambled (hashed) form. Google uses this only to recognise its own signed-in users and to keep our ads away from them. Google does not receive a readable copy of your details and does not use them for anything else. If you would prefer not to be on this list, email us and we will remove you.
You can control cookies through your browser settings, and you can manage how Google uses your information for advertising at myadcenter.google.com.
Keeping your information safe
We store records in secure, password-protected systems and limit access to the people who need it. We keep clinical records for at least the period required by law, and we delete or de-identify other information when it is no longer needed.
Your rights
You can ask to see the personal information we hold about you, ask us to correct it, or ask us to remove your details from our advertising list. Email hello@firstpaw.com.au or call (03) 9013 8490. If you have a concern about how we have handled your information, contact us first and we will do our best to resolve it. You can also contact the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner at oaic.gov.au.
Changes to this policy
We may update this policy from time to time. The latest version is always on this page, with the date it was last updated.